Malenkaya Vera (1988)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.9/10   

Director:

Vasili Pichul

Guionista:

Mariya Khmelik (writer)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

28 abril 1989 (USA)

Género:

Drama

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Teenager | Russian | Russia | Moscow | Social Drift

Premios:

6 wins & 8 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

A profound social document

Reparto

Natalya Negoda	...	Vera
Andrei Sokolov	...	Sergei
Yuri Nazarov	...	Vera's Father
Lyudmila Zajtseva	...	Vera's Mother
Aleksandr Negreba	...	Victor, Vera's Brother (as Aleksandr Alekseyev-Nyegreba)
Aleksandra Tabakova	...	Chistyakova
Andrei Fomin	...	Andrei
Aleksandr Mironov	...	Tolik
Aleksandr Lenkov	...	Mikhail Petrovich
Vadim Zakharchenko
Mariya Khmelik
Anatoli Vasilyev
Gennadi Goryachev		(as G. Goryachev)
Ye. Maryutina
listado alfabético del resto del reparto:
Max Warmflash	...	(voice)

También conocida como:

Маленькая Вера (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Little Vera (USA)
La pequeña Vera (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

Argentina:115 min | USA:110 min | West Germany:128 min (Berlin Film Festival)

País:

Soviet Union

Idioma:

Ruso

Color:

Color

Relación de Aspecto:

1.66 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Iceland:14 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:16 | Australia:M

Locaciones de Filmación:

Moscow, Russia

Compañía:

Gorky Film Studios

Conexiones de Película:

References Still of the Night (1982)

A profound social document

It is difficult, today and in the US, to understand this movie. We have nothing, really, to compare it with. Here is an attempt at comparison: It is as if during the last years of Saddam's rule, a filmmaker in Iraq were somehow able to make a film, which, for the first time ever, showed life as it really was lived in that country. The life of ordinary young girl, with all the terror and the repression full blown. Then the film was exhibited freely in Iraq. If you could imagine that unlikely event, then you might have an idea of what went on with this film in the last few years of the Soviet Union. Prior to this film, Soviet cinema was highly censored. Soviet movies would only show an ideal life in the worker's paradise. Then suddenly this. The alcoholism, the random sex, the ugly wasteland that was the Soviet city, the choking pollution, the proletariat victimizing each other and themselves, the utter hopelessness - it is all there. People were stunned. Soviet women would often weep during the showings. Many would say that this is the story of their lives. It was a cultural earthquake the like of which filmmakers only dream of accomplishing. It undoubtedly hastened the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Reading the reviews here, I can see that few understand this film. One says it was groundbreaking because it contained real sex. To the Soviet viewers at the time, the sex was a minor event compared to fact that it portrayed reality for the first time in Soviet cinema.

Others compare it to current films such as "As Good as it Gets" Might as well compare Homer's Illiad to the latest John Grissam novel. They simply do not compare. This is not just a film, this is was a social document, and a transforming social force. It needs to be viewed that way or you will not understand the film.

Other reviewers see it as a film about a dysfunctional Russian family. One even says that it is difficult to feel sorry for Vera because she keeps coming back to her family. The point is that Vera and her family are symbols for all of Soviet life. There was nowhere else to go, because the family down the block and in the next town were the same. This was life in the Soviet Union for most people.

This is a film that can be viewed on many levels: as a drama it traces the landscape of despair, as a social document it shows the living conditions of the time, as a political document it shows the attitude of the people and many of the reasons for the break-up of the Soviet Union, and as a moral document it shows the evils of a dictatorship that is out of control, and the cruelties that victims will practice on each other.

Little Vera clearly shows the human toll that Socialism eventually takes on its victims, despite any good intentions that system may have. In doing so it helped end the Soviet regime thus contributing to one of the major changes in modern history. This film achieves what only a few films have ever accomplished. It is not only an stunning representation of history but it also become a force in that shaped history.