Little Vera (Malenkaja vera)

Although Western thirst for Soviet films will never quite match the Soviet's yearning for capitalist-produced cinematic delights, Vassilij Pitshul's film has come about as close as any Soviet film to causing a storm at festivals throughout the world. It has also produced respectable box office figures, going so far as to hit 28th position in last week's US box office charta. What carries the film is not only that it is the clearest example so far of Gorbachev's glasnost as applied to cinema, hut that it is, simply, a raw-edged youth melodrama about a strong woman caught between four men: her brother Viktor, first boyfriend Andrej, free-spirited lover Sergej and her doting father - in what is very much a man's world. In one sense, the film can be seen as Vera's personal odyssey from father to lover. (Screen International 10.6.89)