Kira Muratova is known for the dark side in her movies which makes watching and analyzing her movies often a challenging job for those who are ready for such mental and emotional work. But this fantastic movie combines elegant screenplay, amazing operator job, charming melodies by Valentin Silvestrov, one of the best group of actors ever in Russian (or should I say Ukrainian as it was produced in Odessa, Ukraine) cinema - both "great four" (Demidova, Ruslanova, Deliev, Ruslanova) and actors in supporting roles WITH a moral concept which gets exposed only by the very end of the movie conveyed to us through the speech of absolutely fabulous actress, Alla Demidova. It feels like the actors "enjoy the feast" as well - their performance is light, charming and perfectly convincing. This movie is nothing it can be compared with, and will give a true pleasure to all lovers of the great Russian cinema. I would dare to call it a comedy with some serious moral issues discussed - a rare combination, isn't it?
