Phew, another feature-length movie! This one was a request, but I didn't mind doing it, because it's a pretty good film.
It's a teen drama, but it has lots of redeeming qualities. Firstly, the screenplay and the acting are top-notch, despite casting lots of teens. The plot, which involves a trifecta of a first love, an unrequited love and a love triangle, nonetheless manages to be original and engrossing -- and it only made me gag once. My only grudge is that the ending, while certainly being non-Hollywood, feels strained and unlikely, especially considering that it involves 14-year-olds.
Why would you want to watch this movie? Well, first of all, it's an interesting story. Second of all, it portrays the mainstream teen culture as it existed in the heyday of "Brezhnev's Stagnation." Or, rather, the teen culture the way the Soviet society wanted to pretend it was -- it certainly wasn't this sterile in real life. When Vershkov, the local boy, mentioned "rolling some bubble," I honestly expected that he was referring to chugging some vodka after work, and not at all playing football. However, despite trying to play "idealized teens," the characters managed to remain believable, and the feelings they portrayed came across as genuine.
One of the central story lines of the movie involves a play by M. Lermontov, who is considered to be one of the last poets from Russia's era of Romanticism. The play is "The Masquerade" and I couldn't find any English translations of it anywhere (perhaps I should write a Wikipedia article on it, now that I have finally read it.) The plot closely matches Shakespeare's Othello -- Arbenin, a haughty man of unyielding resolve, suspects that his wife Nina is cheating on him with Prince Zvezdich. In fact, it's all a misunderstanding, furthered by concerted efforts of Arbenin's acquaintances, who each have a different stake in seeing him lose affection for Nina. At the end, Arbenin is driven to put poison in Nina's ice-cream, who then "dies, but not at fault," in her own words. After her death, the truth of her innocence becomes apparent to Arbenin, and he loses his mind.
Yeah, in other words -- totally not a play you would be staging with a bunch of 14-year-olds, which is probably why we only see and hear small excerpts during rehearsals. Really, the plot of the play doesn't matter to the plot of the movie, and my haphazard description of it above should be sufficient.
Anyway, if you are a russophile, you will enjoy this movie. If you were a teen in Soviet mid-70's, it will probably make you feel nostalgic (not me, when I was 14 it was already 1990 -- a totally different era). If you are a teen, then this will probably be a good movie to watch with a girl who you would like to impress. ;)
Here's an excerpt:
Original title: Сто дней после детства
English title: A hundred days after childhood
Studio: Mosfilm
Duration: 88 minutes
Download media: arjlover.net
Download subtitles: mricon.com
