Svetlana Nemolyaeva Movies

Director Madeshda Koschewerowa whose first film was released in 1929 and who is best known for a 1947 production of Cinderella, is still in fine form in this mid-'80s version of a story by Charles Perrault. (Another, French version of the same story directed by Jacques Demy was released in 1970.) With great sets and costuming, the tale is about star-crossed lovers, an evil stepmother, and a magical donkey. Princess Theresa is set to marry the young Prince Jacques -- but her stepmother has other plans. Preying on the king's own weakness, the stepmother exacts a promise he feels bound to keep -- but that promise is anathema to the princess. Even though her fairy godmother and the magic donkey come to her aid, it is not enough. So she flees the castle and discards her royal trappings to become a beggar -- yet Prince Jacques still loves her and sets out to marry her, no matter what.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this romance, which was enormously popular in the former Soviet Union, Klava (Galina Polskich) is a woman with a history of disappointment in love. She is divorced from her first husband, by whom she had her now teenaged son. Her second lover, who was married to a dying woman, gave her custody of his daughter but has now left her. She makes the acquaintance of a sailor who has come to her southern seaport town to bury his mother. Because he knows no one in town, she is able to help him a great deal. As they work together, handling these intimate details, they come to care for each other, but each is careful not to become too close, too soon. Klava is too busy dealing with her son's turbulent emotions as he embarks on his first love affair and taking care of her adopted daughter to have time for romance. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi