SU 1966, D Larisa Shepitko, SC Natalya Ryazantseva, Valentin Ezhov, C Igor Slabnevich, M Roman Ledenev, P Mosfilm, Cast Maya Bulgakova, Zhanna Bolotova, Panteleimon Krymov, Leonid Dyachkov, Vladimir Gorelov, Print b/w, 35mm, 86 min, russian OV +engl. SUB, Gosfilmofond of Russia

Shepitko, female icon of Thaw Era cinema, gave Wings to the art of the period, kicking up dust in the process. Only: it’s all about morality, about morality, and also morality, ad infinitum. Heroine Nadezhda Stepanovna is a headmistress whose authority is in the process of eroding completely – with girls and boys alike, and with her adopted daughter anyways. The former Red Army pilot is like a relic from another era. She is only marginally interested in men; her uninhibited dance with the waitress was the embodiment of the excess of that brand of post-war cinema that aimed to examine the generational and gender conflicts as well as the lack of direction of its lonesome individuals. A strong woman, one whose dreams of the vast sky are at the same time (traumatic) memories. In spite of it all, the (steel) bird’s eye view is the only solid ground known to (wo)man. (Barbara Wurm, goEast – Festival des mittel- und osteuropäischen Films, 2017)