Minor spoilers
A life-long story of a romantic school teacher who left imperial St.Petersburg for teaching country children. Driven by noble intentions to enlighten people and examples by 1880s revolutionary "People's Will" member teachers, a young woman spent her life in a village and evidenced the changes a Russian village has undergone from pre-revolutionary tsarist times to late 1940s.
Almost deprived of love (her lover/husband is almost always absent either serving a sentence for political crimes or fighting in the communist ranks), the woman devoted her life to enlightenment. The figure of her lover/husband is solved according to those times' official tradition of depicting Lenin (greasy, not winking eyes hypnotizing his victim, and sugary treatment of his wife) and today looks even not comic but really disgusting.
The best scenes of the film are those with villagers - unwilling money-driven elders ("We need workers, not pupils!") and curious, open to enlightenment children. The casting of villagers (if it ever took place) is brilliant: it is hard to find such real to village life people among actors.
The refrain of opening and ending ball scenes (perhaps not intentionally) bears a philosophical meaning: all the upheaval Russia undergone during the 20-th century resulted only in the change of elite, while the people hardly changed.
In sum, the film is interesting by supporting actor performances and by camera work (by Sergei Urusevsky of "Cranes are flying"), but the idea is not inspiring. 6/10
A life-long story of a romantic school teacher who left imperial St.Petersburg for teaching country children. Driven by noble intentions to enlighten people and examples by 1880s revolutionary "People's Will" member teachers, a young woman spent her life in a village and evidenced the changes a Russian village has undergone from pre-revolutionary tsarist times to late 1940s.
Almost deprived of love (her lover/husband is almost always absent either serving a sentence for political crimes or fighting in the communist ranks), the woman devoted her life to enlightenment. The figure of her lover/husband is solved according to those times' official tradition of depicting Lenin (greasy, not winking eyes hypnotizing his victim, and sugary treatment of his wife) and today looks even not comic but really disgusting.
The best scenes of the film are those with villagers - unwilling money-driven elders ("We need workers, not pupils!") and curious, open to enlightenment children. The casting of villagers (if it ever took place) is brilliant: it is hard to find such real to village life people among actors.
The refrain of opening and ending ball scenes (perhaps not intentionally) bears a philosophical meaning: all the upheaval Russia undergone during the 20-th century resulted only in the change of elite, while the people hardly changed.
In sum, the film is interesting by supporting actor performances and by camera work (by Sergei Urusevsky of "Cranes are flying"), but the idea is not inspiring. 6/10
