The IMDB plot outline about this film is a little bit misleading. Rather it's about kids rebelling against the school system and a daring critique of the whole Soviet system in general. Set in a boarding school cum polio and spinal clinic, this story begins with Ilona (Yekaterina Polikova), a girl brought there by her parents due to spinal problems. She is reluctant to go, but is projected inside by one of the teachers, Zoya (Nina Ruslanova), a former pupil at the clinic. While there she witnesses the regimated Soviet rules that govern the school. Exercises in the morning, compulsory TV viewing of Soviet news (about what would soon be the end of the 1979-89 Soviet-Afghan war that Russia was involved in), and all pupils are forced to finish their meals, no matter what - something Ilona finds out to her cost. She also discovers that all Western things are banned, such as when she has her headphones confiscated for playing Western music on them by Zoya. At night she witnesses some of the girls bully one of the youngsters, but with little real interest by the seemingly one teacher available - Zoya - to do much about it.
Despite being the character that introduces us to this world, Ilona is rather a passive character who observes what goes on in the school. The real lead in this is Sveta (Nika Turbina), a rebellious teenager who when we first see her leaves the institute at night to go and visit a relative in an old folks home - a big no no that sees her hauled up before the headmistress and power behind the clinic, Iraida Kuzminichna (Svetlana Kryuchkova). Iraida is a typical Soviet official of that time, and her first instinct is to expel Sveta, as she recognises a threat to the system. Zoya, however, pleads on her behalf and against her better judgment Iraida allows her to stay on.
Sveta, however, proves to be a thorn in the school's side. During one state TV broadcast she openly mocks the propaganda being shown, encouraging the other pupils to join in. At a school dance organized by Iraida inviting Soviet sailors over so she can enjoy a good knees up for herself, Sveta shocks the others when she pulls one of the boys over for a dance and plays the Western song "Rock Around the Clock." It's often speculated how revolutionary that Bill Hailey song was for America in 1955, but it's demonstrated perfectly in this scene, where Sveta and the girls are liberated just by dancing to a song that isn't from the 'official' Soviet music list, and their uninhibited reaction to it on the dance floor is a joy to see. Afterwards Sveta takes the boy under a staircase for some secret snogging, but then comes an incident that is the unwitting culmination of the rebellion that follows.
Zoya discovers a girl that Sveta has been bullying unconcious in the hallway, and on carrying her to the domitory she sees a letter she has written, telling how she can no longer cope with it. Sveta is so wracked by remorse over her actions that she climbs out onto a window ledge contemplating suicide (an eerie parrallel with Turbina's own life, which ended when she fell from a 5th floor window in 2002, aged just 27). Zoya, however, pulls her in and slaps her about angrily, but her actions only fuel the pupils growing anger and later that night Sveta holds a rally outside protesting against the school rules. What follows is open rebellion, rioting and desecration as the kids finally kick against the system.
It's a brave film for it's era. During the riot a staue of Lenin is desecrated, windows are smashed, while a girl whose father is fighting in Afghanistan openly criticizes the war. Meanwhile, Ilona wanders off with a boy who shows her the deprived areas of Russia that the school and Soviet state refuse to allow them and the Western World to see. None of this would of been thinkable being allowed on film years before, but when the film was made in 1989 it was almost as if they could sense that change was in the air. Soon after this film was released the Soviet-Afghan war had ended in failure and months later the collapse of Communism, culminating in the Fall of the Berlin War.
The performances by the young cast, in particular Turbina, are striking and director Ayan Shakhmaliyeva oversees things with a uninhibited and unsparing eye. There will doubtless, however, be some controversy over the nude scenes involving some of the young cast in the medical scenes - not least Yetakerina Polikova's scene at the end of the film. Early on she observes Sveta being cut out of her bodycast and developes an aversion to being put into one. Part of the reason is that she becomes involved with a boy and worries that this will make her less attractive to him, but also because it represents to her repression and conformity by the school and a limit to her freedom - something that wider range could also represent Russian people's growing reaction to the oppresive Soviet system as a whole. The scene where she is forcibly stripped naked by the medical staff while sobbing makes for an uncomfortable scene, which is either a really good performance by Polikova, or we're witnessing a girl who has only just discovered what she is about to film. The resulting mummification of her in bandages only add to the symbolism of repression by the Sovet State.
So is it a good film? To be honest, it is slow and somewhat sparse in incident at times. It is, however, an important film, especially when it was made in 1989. The film is slightly ambiguous at the end, but what followed it's release that year in 1989 leaves no doubt that this was the starting blow against the Soviet system and that liberation was eventually achieved back then. The most intriguing figure in all this is Zoya. She is a teacher who rigorously upholds the Communist system she grew up under, but as the film progresses she sees that idyll being gradually trashed. In one scene as she tries to appease the rebellion she admits that the school would regularly vet letters or gifts sent or received to them when she was a kid, just to let them know that she knows what they are feeling and resenting. She does so in order to try and convince them the system works, but by the end of the film after the rebellion it shows her now demoted to being a cleaner. Stood by while the kids are watching yet another broadcast of Soviet TV news, she watched as they troop out, then wearily goes over and turns off the TV, no longer believing in the Soviet system she was brought up to believe in. For Russians back then, that was one powerful statement to end on.
