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| Images courtesy of Mosfilm |
The second feature film of legendary Soviet Ukrainian post-VGIK
(All-Russian State Institute for Cinematography) graduate writer-director
Larisa Shepitko Wings or The Wings depending on the translation
is the filmmaker’s first true masterpiece of the distinctly female postwar
perspective. Something of a feminist
precursor to Dunkirk with arresting aerial photography by the VP Chkalov
Central Aeroclub and the First Moscow Aeroclub, it tells the story of a former
female World War II fighter pilot turned school principal struggling to connect
with future generations who did not experience the Great Patriotic War, so to
speak. As such, it functions as
something of a Soviet feminine precursor to Lewis John Carlino’s The Great
Santini depicting a strict warrioress without a war as well as a character
study of a complex strong willed woman who finds herself a fish out of water in
postwar Russia. Previously released by
The Criterion Collection and now restored in 4K by Mosfilm, Shepitko’s second
masterwork is fleeting and powerful, loaded with heavy emotion, brilliant
editing and a gifted central performance from Russian actress Maya Bulgakova.
Former WWII Soviet fighter pilot Nadezhda Petrukhina (Maya
Bulgakova) now at the age of forty-one lives a simpler quieter life as a school
principal in a local construction trade school.
While a legend in her own time rightly earning the respect and
admiration of her colleagues who lived through the war, she finds herself bored
and disappointed with her postwar lifestyle.
In addition to encountering difficulties with her students such as expelling
a young man after a fight with a female classmate, her home life with her
adopted daughter Tanya (Zhanna Bolotova) is rife with dysfunction including
hiding the truth of Tanya’s adoption from her.
Despite Tanya’s suggestions she quit the school principal job and settle
down with a husband, Nadezhda remains steadfast in her militaristic conviction
to her work. However, a chance visit in
a local museum triggers painful memories of her former fellow pilot comrade and
lover Mityaa (Leonid Dyachkov) who died when his airplane was hit by artillery
and Nadezhda finds herself drawn back to the airfield in search of a long deeply
buried emotional closure over her place in contemporary society and losing the
love of her life.
A taut, trained character study of a passionate and caring woman
whose wartime experiences have made her cold and hard, even frightening to
those around her, Wings or The Wings co-written by Valentin
Yezhov and Natalya Ryazantseva is deeply moving, transcendent Soviet
cinema. From Roman Ledenyov’s achingly
melancholic score mourning ghosts of the past to Moscow Does Not Believe in
Tears cameraman Igor Slabnevich’s symmetrical, pristine cinematography interspersed
with breathtaking aerial photography, the film is a technical tour-de-force. With razor sharp editing by Lidiya Lysenkova,
the film effortlessly and masterfully weaves past-tense aerial photography with
present-day scenes of Nadezhda mulling over her awkward place in postwar
society amid an indifferent misunderstanding subsequent generation. Character actress Maya Bulgakova who has been
in everything from Crime and Punishment to the American action thriller Terminal
Velocity gives a complex and nuanced performance of a Soviet fighter pilot
whose wartime experiences have made her chilly and shielded. Co-starring is recurring Shepitko actor
Leonid Dyachkov seen in flashbacks as the love of our heroine’s life, now
buried deep as a stone in her heart.
Also starring include Yuriy Medvedev of Amphibian Man and a
notable cameo by Welcome or No Trespassing screen icon Evgeny
Evstigneev.
Previously released on DVD in 2008 by The Criterion
Collection in an Eclipse Series two-film set including her masterwork The
Ascent followed by Mosfilm’s recent restoration, The Wings influenced
by Shepitko mentor Alexander Dovzhenko on how to approach documentary
neorealism is regarded by Paul Schrader and Ben Wheatley as one of the top ten
Criterion releases. A movie that speaks
volumes to the boundless talents of Larisa Shepitko who was only twenty-eight
at the time of the film’s inception as well as a testament to the female
fighter pilots who fought in the war trying to reintegrate back into society,
Shepitko’s film displays remarkable depth and understanding of postwar Russia as
a cultural period affecting men and especially women across the board. Shepitko is widely considered to be one of
the greatest female film directors in cinema history and with this new digital
restoration of her second masterpiece, let us hope her work starts getting more
widespread attention among western filmgoers.
--Andrew Kotwicki
