Little Vera

Little Vera
Promotional film poster
RussianМаленькая Вера
Directed byVasili Pichul
Written byMariya Khmelik
StarringNatalya Negoda
CinematographyYefim Reznikov
Edited byYelena Zabolotskaya
Music byVladimir Matetsky
Production
company
Distributed byInternational Film Exchange
Release date
  • October 1988 (1988-10)
Running time
135 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian

Little Vera (Russian: Маленькая Вера, romanized: Malenkaya Vera), produced by Gorky Film Studio and released in 1988, is a film by Russian film director Vasili Pichul.[1] The title in Russian is ambiguous and can also mean "Little Faith," symbolizing the characters' lack of hope (or a glimmer thereof).[2][3]

The film was the leader in ticket sales in the Soviet Union in 1988 with 54.9 million viewers,[4] and was the most successful Soviet film in the US since the 1980 Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.[2] Part of its popularity was due to being one of the first Soviet movies with an explicit sexual scene.

The film's main character and namesake is a teenage girl, who just having finished school feels trapped in her provincial town.[5] With its pessimistic and cynical view of Soviet society, the film was typical of its time (perestroika), during which many such films, in the style known as "chernukha [ru]" (roughly "black stuff"), were released.[6]

The film received six awards and was nominated for eight 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.[7]

The soundtrack's main theme consists of two songs performed by Sofia Rotaru[8] "Bylo no proshlo" (It Was, But It Has Gone) and "Tol'ko etovo malo" (Only This Is Not Enough), "the leitmotif of the perestroika classic Little Vera".[9]

  1. ^ Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 412–413. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
  2. ^ a b Horton, Andrew and Brashinsky, Michael, The Zero Hour: Glasnost and Soviet Cinema in Transition (pp. 111-113). Princeton University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-691-01920-7
  3. ^ Lawton, Anna, Kinoglasnost: Soviet Cinema in Our Time (p. 192). CUP Archive, 1992 ISBN 0-521-38814-7, ISBN 978-0-521-38814-6
  4. ^ "Leaders of distribution". Archived from the original on May 10, 2012.
  5. ^ The location is not specified but most of the filming took place in Zhdanov (now Mariupol). "Mariupol Journal; In Hometown, Stalin's Henchman Has Great Fall", New York Times, February 24, 1989.
  6. ^ The script was written in 1983, but no producer could be found for another four years, after glasnost became a reality. Film Quarterly Vol. 42 No. 4 (summer 1989), p. 18
  7. ^ Awards for Malenkaya Vera on imdb.com
  8. ^ "Секс-символ СССР призналась, почему она поет под фанеру". from-ua.com.
  9. ^ http://www.kinokultura.com/2006/11r-dust.shtml Kinkultura - Dust