little vera
the irony is that
little vera
is being sold as a sex film .
she may have little faith, but there' s lots of faith to be had in the movie .
because vasily pichul' s'' little vera'' is a russian film, i suppose that vera must be analyzed as a political statement, a startling indication of just how open mikhail s. gorbachev' s new russian society actually is .
little vera
is extremely autobiographical. vasily pichul, 27, director of this first feature, was born into vera' s grim blue - collar milieu in the smoke - infested, water - polluted port city of zhdanov - - named for andrei zhdanov, a notorious architect of stalin' s purges. there ,
little vera
was filmed in an apartment identical to that still occupied by pichul' s parents .
for americans ,
little vera
confirms what we already knew: life for the poor, the unemployed and the alcoholic is as bad in the soviet union as it is here .
'' little vera'' will be shown tonight at 9 and tomorrow at 12: 30 p. m. at the museum of modern art in the new directors / new films series .
with
little vera ,
a daring 1988 feature from moscow' s gorky studio unveiled at the 12th montreal world film festival which wraps up today, glasnost comes storming out of the gate. even those skeptical about the new artistic freedom in the soviet union must concede that
little vera ,
which opens later this year in the soviet union and the united states, breaks the rules and crosses all boundaries .
scintillating portrait of russia after the fall of communism. vera painfully navigates the course of societal freedom minus any structure (with little guidance from her dysfunctional family). natalya negoda is amazing in the title role .
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942, and died a little over five years ago. i owe a good part of my success…
/ \ russian and soviet films with english subs on my channel. bring a little piece of russian culture into your life! / \ ussr, 1988 genre - drama cast: natalya negoda - - vera andrei sokolov - - sergei yuri nazarov - - kolya (vera' s father) lyudmila zajtseva - - rita (vera' s mother) aleksandr negreba (billed as aleksandr alekseyev - nyegreba) - - victor (vera' s brother) andrei fomin - - andrey watch my channel and enjoy! )
the strategy of selling a foreign film on its sexual content is tried and true, but
little vera
is not a sexy film, and its star is not the new bardot or loren. the sex in
little vera
is sweaty and passionate but not erotic. the film' s real fascination comes from its portrait of everyday life in the soviet union - life that contains few surprises but never has been shown with such frankness and honesty in a soviet film .
, with regular excursions to the bedroom of vera' s lover. vera is well played by natalya negoda, whose beautiful body and somewhat grating voice make her at once sensuous and irritating. with blond - streaked hair, cigarettes, and a promiscuous manner of behavior, vera represents the rebellious soviet youth. vera struggles throughout the movie to overcome her mundane surroundings and banal existence, but to no avail .
sergei represents sophistication to vera. he is laid back, cool, completely sure of himself. at his initial meeting with vera' s parents, a formal sunday dinner, he turns up wearing bermuda shorts. during the meal, bored by the conversation, he grabs vera' s hand and walks out .
at recent soviet - style sneak previews of
little vera ,
audiences were especially impressed by nazarov' s expert portrayal of the lowly alcoholic father, because the actor; pichul explained, normally plays ,
commissars, party people, those who don' t know what doubt means .
with the headline: reviews / film festival;' vera,' a russian love story, abrasive and comic .
'' little vera'' is a far cry from'' moscow does not believe in tears,'' the schmaltzy russian romantic comedy that won the foreign - language oscar some years ago, though not because of its partial nudity and its awareness that people sometimes enjoy sex out of wedlock .
among the scenes in
little vera
that we have not seen in a soviet movie before is one where policemen with guard dogs break up a meeting place of teenagers. the film is frankly on the side of youth and against authority, and the cops are seen as repressive agents of a humorless system .
one of the major aspects of
malenkaya vera
( called
little vera
in english) is that it was the first movie from the soviet union that featured a sex scene, albeit a short one. the title is important: vera is the russian word for
faith
, identifying that punk vera (natalya negoda) has little faith in the soviet system. and as the movie shows, there' s not much faith to be had in it. the opening scene shows the bleak industrial town of zhdanov, nearly a hell on earth. when vera' s lover sergei (andrey sokolov) moves in with her family, it leads to some unexpected events. like in many russian movies, people' s names describe their characters. for example, there' s viktor (remember that
victor
means winner). all in all, this is a good look at the soviet union while it was collapsing - and we can see why it was collapsing. really good .
until now ,
little vera
has eluded censorship, though pichul acknowledged that
rumors persist in some official circles that the film distorts reality, blackens everything, and that such works shouldn' t be allowed to exist .
but the film has strong allies within the soviet filmmakers union, and groundswell public support bolstered by pichul' s strategic casting of two beloved soviet actors, ludmilla zaitzeva and yuri nazarov, as vera' s parents .
life in the cramped apartment becomes impossible. the drunken father fights with sergei, who moves out, and vera attempts suicide .
'' little vera'' is less critical and daring than honest and frank. more important, it doesn' t simplify or attempt to explain the contradictory natures of the characters. they' re not exactly chekhovian, but they are complex, sometimes self - deluding and almost always, at some point, most engagingly comic .
but nothing works in her life, including engagement to a nihilistic university student. vera teeters between a doomed marriage and the allure of suicide .
the title character of the russian little vera is a headstrong teenage girl, played by natalya negoda. to the dismay of her parents, vera lives only for the moment, making no provision for her future. she' d rather hang out at local cafes in garish makeup and provocative clothing. a chance meeting with handsome student sergei (andrei sokolov) develops into a sexual relationship. her parents send out vera' s brother (alexander alexeyev - negreba) to talk some sense into her, which proves to be doubly dicey when it turns out that the brother is an old acquaintance of the rebellious sergei. vera lies, saying that she' s gotten pregnant by sergei, so he obligingly marries her and moves in with her family, which serves only to make matters worse, as vera' s drunken father (yuri nazarov) ends up stabbing his son - in - law. persuaded to lie about the incident to keep her father out of jail, vera takes her family' s side. a last - minute tragedy is barely averted, but the audience gets the distinct feeling that vera' s problems with her family in particular and her life in general are far from over. ~ hal erickson, rovi
miss negoda' s vera is an enchanting creature. she' s willful, sweet, a little silly and essentially honest. she has a laugh that is a fishwife' s cackle, which, like elizabeth taylor' s, is all the more infectious for having no apparent relation to the beauty from which it issues. miss negoda could be the discovery of the year .
but'' little vera'' is so funny, so abrasive and so true that it transcends newsworthiness. it stands on its own. it also suggests that in mr. pichul, its 28 - year - old director, and in mariya khmelik, who wrote the screenplay, the russians have a pair of first - rate new film makers who will soon be internationally known .
however, the most radical element of
little vera
is its obstinately pessimistic tone, a total rejection of the mandated pollyannaish romanticism of traditional stalin - khruschev - brezhnev cinema. never has there been such a bleak, kitchen - sink look at the daily life of soviet citizenry. some viewers may even wish for the return of the halcyon days of happy, politically correct tractor drivers .
little vera
comes advertised as the first soviet film to deal frankly with youth rebellion, discontent with the system, and sex. its star, natalya negoda, has gained a measure of fame by being the first soviet actress to appear nude in a fairly explicit sex scene. to help launch the film in america, negoda posed nude for playboy and told her story to people magazine .
'' little vera'' will be opening a regular commercial run at the lincoln plaza on april 14. go. adrift in a world of people on course little vera, directed by vasily pichul; screenplay (in russian with english subtitles) by maryia khmelik; photography by yefim reznikov; edited by yelena zabolotskaya; music by vladimir matetsky; art direction by vladimir pasternak; production company, gorky film studios; an international film exchange release. at roy and niuta titus theater 1, museum of modern art, as part of the new directors / new films series. running time: 130 minutes. this film has no rating. vera... natalya negoda sergei... andrei sokolov the father... yuri nazarov the mother... lyudmila zaitseva andrei... andrei fomin viktor... aleksandr alekseyev - negreba tolik... aleksandr mironov chistiakova... aleksandra tabakova mikhail petrovich... aleksandra linkov
vera (natalia negoda) is a tough, coarse 18 - year - old residing with her parents in a public housing project in a factory town far south of moscow. vera' s pathetic father drinks himself sick every day in search of his male self - respect. her angry mother screams and shouts in stream - of - consciousness across the apartment' s tiny three rooms. vera fights her claustrophobic home life by donning leather miniskirts, streaking her hair, and chasing after boys .
when sergei very casually suggests that maybe he and vera should marry, her parents immediately insist that he move in with them, which is when the trouble really starts .
is a coming - of - age film centered around vera' s relationship with her family and her tumultuous affair with a good - looking but egocentric college student. this hunk, sergio (andrei sokolov), after deciding that he and vera shall be wed, moves into her humble home. sergio' s disdain for vera' s parents soon becomes mutual, resulting in a progressively more belligerent atmosphere. vera eventually confides to her best friend lena that she is completely miserable in what should be
the happiest time of her life .
when lena shares a stress - reducing yoga exercise learned from her boyfriend, the two fall to the floor and laugh with a single
ha !
in montreal, this metal worker' s son wore fancy continental clothes, drank campari for the first time, and swore allegiance to the international film community of directors schlondorf, scorsese and tarkovsky. he was flanked at parties by his attractive wife, the daughter of a well - known screenwriter, and by
my platonic love ,
little vera' s
lead, negoda, 24, sultry and leggy and who could emerge as the soviet union' s first sex star .
a story about a young woman, vera, who is somebody, living the life of a troubled teenager in the time right before the end of the soviet union. she lives in a very small russian apartment with her mother and father, however being this close to each other makes the living get rough. their daily life is plagued with massive amounts of alcohol (mainly vodka) and when she tries to escape her home life, she meets up with a boyfriend, sergei who then moves into her already small apartment after sleeping with her. every day little vera has to go through hell just to get by, which even involves her going against her own morals after her father has done something extremely wrong .
vera, played with remarkable comic authority by natalya negoda, is not doomy enough to be classified as seriously alienated. underneath the punk hair style that her parents have learned not to criticize, she' s bright, quick and common - sensical, adrift in a world where everyone else appears to be traveling a set course. vera is just out of school and about to take a job with the telephone company .
perhaps the most striking moment of the film occurs when vera learns that she was not a
wanted
child. why didn' t her parents abort the pregnancy? the answer is not the one americans would expect: vera was born so that her father could get the larger apartment he wanted. this situation is typical of the film - - it provides american viewers with a characteristic slice of life in the soviet union .
her mother and father panic when vera acknowledges she' s having an affair with a good - looking young student named sergei, whom she met one night after a public dance that turned into a rock - riot .
vera herself finds what cheer she can in the arms of sergei, who meets her at a dance. he is an
intellectual ,
a nonconformist, but it is hard for him to express his free spirit when he must move into vera' s flat with her warring parents. (the housing shortage in the soviet union actually is one of the film' s most important themes; none of the characters can count on a moment' s privacy .) vera and sergei share a few moments of happiness, including one ironic interlude on the beach, where they pause in their lovemaking to discuss their goals, and vera says ,
in our country, we have but one goal: communism .
this line, in all of its sarcasm, reportedly has become as famous in the soviet union as
plastics !
became after the 1967 release of
the graduate
in this country .
a story about a young woman, vera, who is somebody, living the life of a troubled teenager in the time right before the end of the soviet union. she lives in a very small russian apartment... see full summary »
the sole reference to marxist ideology is an ironic one, when the bikini - clad protagonist, vera, lies across her amour' s body on the beach and declares, tongue - in - cheek ,
we have a common goal: communism .
not surprisingly, vera seeks to escape from this life, and she leaves the apartment with relief, dressed in a mini - skirt, to hang out with a group of nonconformist teenagers who like to listen to rock' n' roll and bait the authorities .
in the meantime, she waits around. when she can, she hangs out with her girlfriends, picking up boys. she shares a cramped, working - class apartment with her father, who is a decent sort until he drinks (when he turns into a slob), and her mother, a once pretty woman who works too hard at her job and spends her exhausted off hours fretting. the arbiter of family disputes is vera' s older brother, viktor, a doctor who lives in moscow and who is telephoned every time vera does something wrong, which is constantly .
does dust intend to make any political commentary? maybe not. but its imaginative use of the soundtrack—in counterpoint to the image—is quite damning. lesha’s therapeutic dance with the psychology student is set to alla pugacheva’s pop rendition of mandel' shtam’s macabre “leningrad. ” lesha’s comic attempts to impress chance acquaintances with the documentary evidence of his “other body” are accompanied by sofia rotaru’s “only this is not enough”—the leitmotif of the perestroika classic little vera (vasilii pichul, 1988). but the film’s gem is viktor tsoi’s song “we are waiting for changes! ” which acquired a quasi - religious status after the release of sergei solov' ev’ assa (1988). the song plays twice at the film’s end: the first time as an ironic quote, when lesha runs through the long corridor towards the lab and the promised land; the second as the final credits start rolling. this time, the song acquires a body: a young man angrily interprets the lyrics into sign language .
the film takes place in a provincial city where vera, a restless teenager, lives in a cramped three - room apartment with her al coholic father and her thoroughly disillusioned mother. a brother has moved to moscow. life in the family is a drab routine: the self - pitying, unemployed father gets up in the morning and starts to drink, and the mother and daughter plan their days around his rages and remorses .
cut to a small, exceptionally pretty young woman as she stands on the tiny balcony of one of those apartment blocks, leaning on the rail in cheeky boredom. she is vera and she is definitely not forever. with the exception of her surprising spirit, everything about her will soon wear out or be cheerfully forgotten, including her dark glasses, the gum she is chewing and the loud rock music she' s listening to .
takes place in the soviet union, the moral of the film is foreign only to the extent that americans (and hollywood films) seem to pride themselves on a constant glimmer of hope. the misery, however, is universal. it is not until half - way through the film, when vera says to sergio ,
we have a common goal... communism ,
that we are forced to remember that we are dealing with the soviet union and not just any desolate place .
the film that shocked the soviets with its depiction of your average russian family as a squalid, sottish, violent bunch of amoral no - hopers. filtered through western eyes, the sex scenes seem mild, the foul language blunted by subtitles, and the rebellious stance tame. but the film' s message is still subtly affecting. the circumscribed sadness of life in a dull industrial town; the inability of the generations to understand each other; the hard eyed look at love as an explosive and divisive, not redemptive force; these themes are mercilessly delineated. there' s also a welcome anarchic humour at work: when stolid sergei bemoans vera' s lack of purpose, she writhes on top of him purring:' you and i share the same goal. communism'. you can feel the shock waves from here. the film' s chief revelation is negoda' s searing performance as vera, a feisty, mean - minded hellcat who injects chaos into every life that touches hers. the booze fuelled tale is wildly melodramatic, but the performances, pitilessly shot in gritty, realistic settings, are excellent .
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an independent, small - budget (no - budget, to be precise) film shot on digital camera, dust seemed an unlikely candidate for any recognition amidst the bombast of such new russian “blockbusters” as the turkish gambit (dzhanik faiziev, 2005) and company 9 (fedor bondarchuk, 2005). nonetheless, upon its release in june 2005 loban’s film immediately raked in a dozen enthusiastic reviews by major russian film critics, who repeatedly called this modest film a sign of a new direction in russian cinema. screened in the “perspectives” program at the moscow film festival, [ 1 ] dust received a diploma of the jury of russian film critics for the “experiment on the body of the hero and on the language of cinema. ” while the second part of this peculiar citation is expected praise for an independent production, the first part has to do with the script. the plot is simple, clever, and—to avoid the tired imprecision of the word “topical”—contemporary .
the hero of dust is lesha sergeev (aleksei podol' skii), an obese 24 - year old man, balding and myopic, who lives with his grandmother. this intelligentnaia woman monitors every aspect of lesha’s life, from the intake of proteins and glucose (franks and sugar - loaded tea for breakfast) to suitable leisure (making model airplanes) to an appropriate outfit (an oversized t - shirt with a kitten print, purchased in a second - hand store). for the duration of the film, lesha’s amorphous body will be draped in this “unisex” monstrosity, exchanged for female clothing at the film’s end. this expository part of the film is a small masterpiece of acting, editing, and mise - en - scène. unpretentious and unsentimental, the sequence has lesha’s entire life laid out with an unerring feel for turn - of - the - millennium russia: a fully internalized sense of alienation from “reality. ” lesha’s face, torso, hands, and even the kitten on his t - shirt, magnified and distorted by close - ups, all articulate dejected bewilderment .
by some fluke lesha is selected by the fsb to participate in an “experiment” for the “glory of russian science. ” neither the purpose nor, indeed, the nature of the experiment is clear, but its side effect has a profound impact on lesha in the form of a flickering image of the
lesha, a muscular, fit, and assertive one. in a gogolian attempt to regain this other body’s “beauty and power, ” the hero desperately chases after his athletic double through the streets, clubs, and gyms of post - soviet moscow. the hero’s sluggishness and submissiveness disappear, replaced by an outburst of activity. initially lesha follows the fsb instructions: do not return to the lab and call a psychologist in case of “anxiety. ” lesha’s further actions follow the same obscure but effective logic as ivan the homeless’ attempts to catch the elusive “foreigner” in mikhail bulgakov’s
. first lesha goes to victory park on poklonnaia mountain; then tries to squeeze his way back into the lab; finally, he tracks down the professor of gynecology in charge of the experiment (petr mamonov) and, despite the latter’s warnings, goes in for a lethal dose of the “experiment. ”
to say that dust is an independent cinema project by a team of audacious alternative artists only begins to describe this uncanny film and its creators. during the 1990s, director sergei loban and scriptwriter marina potapova created an art group with the shocking name zaibi— “for anonymous and free art. ” the two of them plus cameraman dmitrii model' also worked on the program up to 16 and older for the ort channel. the self - proclaimed anarchists invited alternative artists to their programs, organized “street parties” (a post - soviet analogue of conceptualist collective actions), and arranged fake pr campaigns for aspiring duma candidates. by 2000 their unorthodox activities became too much for the channel to take, at which point the trio announced the creation of the studio svoi 2000. after several shorts, svoi 2000 made its debut feature film dust .
dust ’s symbolic budget of $ 3, 000, as well as its non - professional cast, which consists of the filmmakers’ friends plus petr mamonov, exemplifies zaibi’s slogan: “even a naked man in open space can be creative. ” albeit non - professional, the actors in dust are all familiar faces in the russian artistic underground. gleb mikhailov, the director of black dude (chernyi fraer, 2001) —a campy parody of aleksei balabanov’s brother (1997) and brother - 2 (2000) —plays lesha’s “body. ” russian rappers white hot ice and rustaveli appear as carjacking gangsters. the former muztv host larisa piatnitskaia (also known as squirrel) appears as the fsb - employed psychology student, while the “revolutionary writer” dmitrii pimenov is featured as an fsb official .
shot with a hand - held digital camera, dust abounds in tight close - ups of unappealing faces and bodies, captured at strange angles. yet this is neither naturalism nor an attempt to go out on a limb for visual originality. the film’s zero - budget and the filmmakers’ inexperience may account for the rough picture, but the “dogme - 95 style” works well for the film. when the camera focuses on lesha’s bloated face or relentlessly pursues him through his meaningless search it is, as the authors claim, hyperrealism: we are challenged to watch a movie that, in the process of constructing reality, strips it of any cinematic glamour .
the trashy visual quality has another effect that is key to the film’s narrative. on the one hand, we are privy to the grainy but endearing authenticity of a home - video. on the other hand ,
the texture of [ video ] format inevitably brings to mind countless wedding recordings, video reports of investigative police actions, house security monitors, police surveillance [ … ] and other such foul material, dispassionately documenting in every detail the grimy everyday life. [ 2 ]
despite all these signs of art - house marginality, dust is not an obscure avant - garde text, with appeal only to critics and insiders. surprisingly enough, it is a cause - and - effect narrative film, character - centered, with clear psychological motivation. the narrative steadily progresses from initial equilibrium to disruption to resolution. as in classic hollywood films, the hero is driven by desire. the film suggests, however, that our desires and drives are side - effects of some ill - designed neuro - social experiment, whereas final equilibrium is achieved through a pulverization of the hero, who is finally able to catch up with his media - enhanced reflection—a kind of prequel to the matrix (andy and larry wachowski, 1999) set in a country that never valued individual consciousness in the first place .
dust shares its penchant for hyper - realistic fantasy with such recent russian films as 4 (il' ia khrzhanovskii, 2004) and bipedalism (evgenii iufit, 2004). the loban - potapova - model' team, however, are straight shooters. beginning as a profoundly humanistic narrative, dust gradually transforms into a godardian act of aggression on the viewer, as lesha gets lost among the forces of the post - soviet moscow - scape. the fsb appeals to lesha’s “love for the motherland” and harasses him; 1960s intellectuals praise the new generation “which grew up free”; liberals and neo - dissidents suggest emigration; the fsb - employed psychologist encourages lesha to “open up and communicate”; the keyboard - thumping preacher (played with gusto by psoi korolenko) at a religious sect meeting promises new life through god; and so on and so forth. by the time the misanthropic professor delivers his outrageous 10 - minute long lecture - monologue (which can only be compared with the marxist lecture in jean - luc godard’s weekend, 1967) on human insignificance—also known as “dust”— the viewer cannot but identify with the blessedly autistic hero. none of these discourses has any effect on him. he just stands meekly in the frame with a vacant stare, silent except for bashmachkin - like mumbling: “my body is there. i want it back. for keeps. ”
the viewer does not know how to feel. perhaps this explains why in a collective act of denial many russian critics described lesha using a transplanted term: “loser. ” but if the buff supercop / gangster / special forces agent, populating a score of recent films and tv productions, represents the positive pole of this paradigm, the “experiment” has, indeed succeeded. dust is a funky and accurate picture of putin’s russia: a stagnant police state with “kgb basements” below and the desolate imperial ensemble at the poklonnaia mountain above, and with second - hand consumer capitalism stuck in the middle. in the closing sequence, the flickering post - experiment lesha joins his grandmother in front of a tv, where stand - up comedian evgenii petrosian is doing his routine: like a cackling demon of banality, he spews out discursive fragments of the new “free” society .
dust is not easy viewing but it is a surprising discovery. the team’s next low - budget project, a film about summer vacations, is already underway. it is definitely something to look forward to .
1 ] dust was reportedly invited to participate in the cannes film festival but was not included because of problems with translation .
2 ] anton kostylev, “brat - 3: vernite telo, ” urltoken (14 july 2005). .
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the strangest thing about this process is that it has made a truly revolutionary soviet film look like another one of those
one summer of happiness
sex romps from scandinavia .
her brother, visiting from moscow, screams in anguish over his impossible family situation. but what the film makes clear is that much of the unhappiness comes from a social system that has given people no clear tasks, few areas to exercise personal ambition, cramped living quarters, no privacy and too much bootleg booze .
eroticism in soviet films reminds me of dr. johnson' s famous line about a dog standing on its hind legs :
it is not done well, but one is surprised to find it done at all .
what this film does express, strongly and clearly, is a deep discontent among the soviets who have lived in an incompetently managed society for too long. the angers in this film are the same ones that have produced mikhail gorbachev (and, it would appear, the same ones that have resulted in the astonishing election results in poland) .
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montreal — glasnost for the soviet cinema began promisingly with the dramatic release in 1986 of the long - suppressed, controversial films ,
commissar
( 1967) and
theme
( 1979), shelved with finality during the brezhnev era. still, those pictures were made a long time ago. would gorbachev' s rhetoric encouraging internal criticism of soviet life actually be carried out in the newest cinema ?
there is casual nudity and several steamy sex scenes, beyond anything before on the soviet screen. uniformed soviet police, buttressed by snarling german shepherds, are photographed in several episodes as the enemy of youth trying to have fun. official soviet policy about aids is satirized when a student reads aloud from a stodgy government missive warning against
sexual contact with homosexuals, drug addicts, and those who lead a dissipated sexual life .
the script by pichul' s moscow - raised wife, maria khnelik, was conceived by her after a visit to zhdanov to meet the in - laws .
i can' t really say that i have some special strength ,
he said through a russian translator here at the festival .
maybe it' s luck. as a boy, i was a soccer player, preparing to be a pro. some of my friends made that career, and sometimes i envy their fame, money, and their having less problems. but when i was 17, and full of myself, the only career which could match my ambitions was to be film director - - although i didn' t know at all what that profession really meant. people at the vgik film school in moscow were very kind to pick me. i think it' s a miracle .
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the camera pans across a bleak industrial landscape of factories, smokestacks, warehouses, rows of identical apartment blocks. on the soundtrack can be heard the occasional call of a dove mixed with the noises of urban intercourse. there is a sense of activity, purpose and routine, of the heavy momentum that carries a great modern society from one day to the next, possibly forever .
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she receives excellent support from the other cast members, especially andrei sokolov as the debonaire sergei, and yuri nazarov and lyudmila zaitseva as her parents .
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the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide - release movies, 40 for limited - release movies, 20 for tv shows), including 5 reviews from top critics .
for all its bleakness and disillusion, there is a poignant innocence in it .
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for the soviet union and has captured the enthusiasm of millions of soviet movie - goers, largely for its unprecedented and erotic love scenes .
, however, is not an openly erotic movie; its sexual scenes are merely a peek through a keyhole into the forbidden. and this is perhaps how the american audience will view
- - a peek into the once - forbidden soviet society, a first - time view of daily life in the ussr .
is a movie about misery. it takes us to the depths of deprivation and anguish with such realism that it makes the audience feel as if it were reading the diary of a recent suicide. we are tempted to close the diary quickly, but the film goes on. the characters slowly lose all hope until the film contains not a glimmer of optimism, but the film goes on still .
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little vera ( russian : ма́ленькая ве́ра , malenkaya vera ) , produced at the gorky film studio and released in 1988 , is a film by russian film director vasili pichul . the title in russian is ambiguous and can also mean " little faith , " symbolizing the characters ' lack of hope ( or a glimmer thereof ) . the film was the leader in ticket sales in the soviet union in 1988 with 54.9 million viewers , and was the most successful soviet film in the us since moscow does not believe in tears . part of its popularity was due to being one of the first soviet movies with explicit sexual scenes . the film 's main character and namesake is a teenage girl , who just having finished school feels trapped in her provincial town . with its pessimistic and cynical view of soviet society , the film was typical of its time ( perestroika ) , during which many such films , collectively known as the chernukha ( russian : чернуха , roughly " black stuff " ) , were released . however , the film 's popularity did not prove long lived . the film received 6 awards and was nominated for 8 more . among its wins , it received " best actress " for natalya negoda at the nika awards in 1989 . the film 's director , vasili pichul , received the special jury prize at the 1988 montreal world film festival and fipresci prize at the 1988 venice film festival . the soundtrack 's main theme consists of two songs performed by sofia rotaru " bylo no proshlo " ( it was , but it has gone ) and " tol ' ko etogo malo " ( only this is not enough ) , " the leitmotif of the perestroika classic little vera " . 
little vera (russian: ма́ленькая ве́ра, malenkaya vera), produced at the gorky film studio and released in 1988, is a film by russian film director vasili pichul. the title in russian is ambiguous and can also mean " little faith, " symbolizing the characters' lack of hope (or a glimmer thereof). the film was the leader in ticket sales in the soviet union in 1988 with 54.9 million viewers, and was the most successful soviet film in the us since moscow does not believe in tears. part of its popularity was due to being one of the first soviet movies with explicit sexual scenes. the film's main character and namesake is a teenage girl, who just having finished school feels trapped in her provincial town. with its pessimistic and cynical view of soviet society, the film was typical of its time (perestroika), during which many such films, collectively known as the chernukha (russian: чернуха, roughly " black stuff "), were released. however, the film's popularity did not prove long lived. the film received 6 awards and was nominated for 8 more. among its wins, it received " best actress " for natalya negoda at the nika awards in 1989. the film's director, vasili pichul, received the special jury prize at the 1988 montreal world film festival and fipresci prize at the 1988 venice film festival. the soundtrack's main theme consists of two songs performed by sofia rotaru " bylo no proshlo " (it was, but it has gone) and " tol' ko etogo malo " (only this is not enough), " the leitmotif of the perestroika classic little vera ".
little vera (russian: ма́ленькая ве́ра, malenkaya vera), produced at the gorky film studio and released in 1988, is a film by russian film director vasili pichul. the title in russian is ambiguous and can also mean " little faith, " symbolizing the characters' lack of hope (or a glimmer thereof). the film was the leader in ticket sales in the soviet union in 1988 with 54.9 million viewers, and was the most successful soviet film in the us since moscow does not believe in tears. part of its popularity was due to being one of the first soviet movies with explicit sexual scenes. the film's main character and namesake is a teenage girl, who just having finished school feels trapped in her provincial town. with its pessimistic and cynical view of soviet society, the film was typical of its time (perestroika), during which many such films, collectively known as the chernukha (russian: чернуха, roughly " black stuff "), were released. however, the film's popularity did not prove long lived. the film received 6 awards and was nominated for 8 more. among its wins, it received " best actress " for natalya negoda at the nika awards in 1989. the film's director, vasili pichul, received the special jury prize at the 1988 montreal world film festival and fipresci prize at the 1988 venice film festival. the soundtrack's main theme consists of two songs performed by sofia rotaru " bylo no proshlo " (it was, but it has gone) and " tol' ko etogo malo " (only this is not enough), " the leitmotif of the perestroika classic little vera ".