Comedy
White Dew
Белые росы
Igor Dobrolyubov · 1983
Synopsis
The village of Biélyïé Rossy is to disappear, and its inhabitants are preparing to leave for flats in town. Old Fedos Khodas, attached to his house, would like to keep his three sons, Andrei, Sashka and Vaska, together. The youngest, Vaska, is caught in a love triangle with his wife Marusia and her former suitor, Mishka Kissel, while the family struggles with the rehousing and its own quarrels. Part of the events unfolds through the characters' dreams.
Context
Alexei Dudarev wrote the screenplay at the age of thirty-two, drawing partly on his father for Khodas; the episode of the poisoned alcohol comes from his own military service. Filming took place in 1983 in Grodno and in the village of Deviatovka, with Grigori Massalski behind the camera and songs by Ian Frenkel. Vsevolod Sanaev plays Fedos; Nikolai Karachentsov, Mikhail Kokshenov and Gennadi Garbuk play the three sons, and Boris Novikov the neighbour Timofei, who improvises his farewell scene.
Who it is for
A bittersweet comedy in Russian, of a little under an hour and a half, about the end of a village and a way of life.
Prizes and reception
Voted comedy of the year by the magazine Sovietski ekran, the most popular of its director's films, many of whose lines have passed into the language.
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