“Little Vera” Directed by Vasily Pichal - 1988
The film project titled, “Little Vera” was, in my opinion a made for TV reality style show. I can picture this being a TV show later on down the road when we had the reality television phase. Although, this was a film project it left room for future character options. For example, Sergei could have helped fix the toilet afterwards to show he forgive Vera’s father for stabbing him and we can see a stronger bond between everyone during the recovering from the drama time frame. Vasily spent a great deal of time displaying the emotions of the enraged father on a negative level and Sergei’s locking Vera’s father in the bathroom, but we don’t see the same level of strength in the forgiving and moving on part of the story.
I sense that this teen has a lot of growing up to do and hopefully Vera doesn’t continue smoking for fear of injury a child for her Sergei. In almost every corner of the world a teen watching this film can relate to much of what happens in Vera’s family. It’s not only her family, but the things that happen with other characters in the film. Remember the police station were Vera is sitting at a desk, there was another gentleman that appeared shortly afterward. This guy had an interesting role that wasn’t fully reveal and would of helped me figure out a bit more of why he was really part of the project. It felt as if that particular role would have made no difference if it were removed.
It must have been a normal reaction for ever family to have dramatic issues take place at home and everyone ends up pretending it never happened. I’m not sure that it would be that way in my neck of the woods, but for them, it was apparent that it just ended up a hush-hush situation after all.
I would love to see a remake of this film and with a little more attention to the recovering from the dramatic event and pulling together as a family. Like I mentioned above, Maybe show Sergei make the first move towards this goal and help fix the broken latrine.
Haha, fixing the basin would be a nice gesture, wouldn't it! :>)
ReplyDeleteInteresting what you say re a reality show--because I agree that this film really does in a sense try to document what real family could be like in the disintegrating Soviet Union--even if it was based on a fictional screenplay, it nonetheless resounded with countless situations.
Also interesting what you note about the friend w/ the mustache--it is quite possible that he may have had a larger part in the original screenplay, but due to editing it got whittled down.
I feel like the family being unable to pull things together is reminiscent of the later government of the USSR trying to make reforms and ultimately failing. If the family had pulled together, to me it would seem a little like a cop-out, but then again in western film we're used to more closure than what was given in this film. For example, we know the father suffers a heart attack at the end of the film, but we don't know if he passes away whereas if this were a western film, there would be a defined answer.
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