Your first love is arriving tomorrow — married to the guy next door.
In a Berlin rooming house filled with an assortment of seriocomic Russian émigrés, Lev Ganin, a vigorous young officer poised between his past and his future, relives his first love affair. His memories of Mary are suffused with the freshness of youth and the idyllic ambience of pre-revolutionary Russia. In stark contrast is the decidedly unappealing boarder living in the room next to Ganin's, who, he discovers, is Mary's husband, temporarily separated from her by the Revolution but expecting her imminent arrival from Russia.
Writing
Nabokov's debut novel adapted with lyrical precision
Production
Evokes 1920s émigré Berlin through cramped interiors
Acting
Stychkin carries impossible longing in every gesture
Director
Sergey Vinogradov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Nabokov's first novel, written in 1926 Berlin while he himself lived among Russian émigrés.
RU
