The other night we viewed a DVD of this, Andrei Tarkovsky's first film, completed as his student thesis project at Moscow's famous VGIK film school, shot at the Mosfilm Studios. Tarkovsky went on to become one of the great lights of the Russian art film, making Andrei Rublev, Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker, among other pictures. This first effort is easier to understand than some of the later works, and a good introduction to his personal style. It is a 46-minute children's fable, about the friendship between a beleagured and insecure child musician and a heavy machinery operator paving the square in front of his apartment house, sort of like the French classic The Red Balloon. But it is also very different.
The themes of art and labor are Soviet, but the human drama, of personal fulfilment, bullying, testing, studying suffering, frustration, friendship, and the power of love, are universal. For anyone interested in the art of Tarkovsky, this early work is a real gem. It is full of symbolism, artistic cinematography--a raindrop falling into a puddle is almost like a human tear--and human moments. In a way, it presages his later themes, of a sensitive person caught in an insensitive world. We got our copy from Netflix. You can buy a copy at Amazon.com. And there is an excellent critical analysis online at Nostalghia.com. If you are interested in Russian films, especially Tarkovsky, you won't want to miss Steamroller and Violin.