Spring on Riverside Street (1956)

Dir. Marlen Khutsiev

Russian with English subtitles

96 minutes

 

An early melodrama of the Thaw period, the film follows the uneasy but blossoming love between a teacher and her pupil. Tanya Levchenko, a product of the Soviet Intelligentsia and a fresh literature graduate leaves her comfortable and safe life, travelling to a provincial city to take up a teaching post at a night school for the young workers of a nearby metal works. Though initially plagued by feelings of insecurity created by her new surroundings and clinging to a cold and professional dignity in lieu of any real understanding of the people she lives among, she eventually ends up learning from them instead. It is at the school that she meets stoker Sasha Savchenko, who has his eyes opened by the educated Tanya.

 

David MacFadyen is Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include contemporary Russian culture, especially cinema, animation, television, and popular song; the history of mass entertainment; and twentieth-century philosophy, literature, and literary theory. In addition to numerous articles and chapters in edited collections, MacFadyen is also the author of ten books, including Bling a la Russe (Moscow, 2009), Russian Television Today: Primetime Drama and Comedy (Routledge, 2007), and Russian Culture in Uzbekistan: One Language in the Middle of Nowhere (Routledge, 2005). MacFadyen has held many advisory and editorial appointments, and is currently serving on the boards of Kinokultura (since 2008) and Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema (since 2008).