Viktor Pavlov

People with a passion for horses are observed in this Russian film by filmmaker Kira Muratova. The film has no real plot. Instead it zeros in on several scenes in which people talk about or hang out around horses. In the first segment, set on the lawn of a seaside hospital, an healing, wheelchair bound jockey, a nurse and an eccentric circus performer, Viola, discuss the difference between racehorses and circus horses. Another scene is set at a racetrack where gunshots are heard in the background. Fashion models are doing a layout amongst the horses. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this somewhat opaque film, representative a Russian cinematic genre which could be called "existential drama," the story of a charming man who failed to live up to his own expectations, and whose life consequently also failed, is told by his son. This film contains many references to the works of director Marlen Khutsiyev and to his long-suppressed film July Rain. In the story, Lev (Alexander Abdulov) is the premier charmer of a small social group in Leningrad. As it opens, he has taken a dare that, if he will swim the Neva River, he will bed the lovely Lena (Kseniya Kachalina). He swims the river, and wins the dare. Later, when a member of the group is picked up by the secret police, Lev disappears for a while, apparently guilt-striken at having betrayed a friend. Eventually, he dives into the Neva once more: it is not clear whether he intends to commit suicide, or this is an allegorical image to indicate that he has passed out of the story. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

By 1922, the bloom was off the rose of the Bolshevik Revolution, and people were adjusting to food and housing shortages and ever-increasing poverty. In a symbolically parallel development, a young man has optimistically married an extremely beautiful woman, filled with dreams of happily-ever-after. Instead, she almost immediately beds his best friend and then becomes a high-class prostitute while he looks on helplessly. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide