A Soviet bureaucrat fights the system from within—and his heart fights harder.
Ivan Yegorovich - a front-line soldier, secretary of the rural district party committee in Siberia - receives a directive on reclamation of the area, but he believes that irrigation work will disrupt the water balance and adversely affect crops. Not having received support in the regional committee, he goes to Moscow. The second storyline is the story of Krylov's complex relationship with Seraphim, whom he has loved since childhood. Having separated for many years, fate gives them the opportunity to start all over again.
Acting
Matveyev's weary integrity anchors every scene he's in.
Cinematography
Siberian landscapes that swallow human ambition whole.
Writing
Two storylines that mirror each other with painful precision.
Director
Igor Gostev
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Glasnost-era films like this quietly dismantled Soviet heroic narratives before it was fashionable—Ivan's bureaucratic defeat was radical honesty.
Matveyev reportedly insisted on filming in actual Siberian conditions; the visible breath in committee scenes is real, not effect.
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