Customer Reviews

Little Vera [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've seen this movie in Moscow, when it first hit the screens, and it was a really revolutionary one for those times. I think it depicted quite well the problems of the young people in Russia, also the grim details of the life of Russion people in general - drunkenness, rudeness, total lack of culture, ignorance and so on. For those interested in furthering their interest in Russia it will provide another source.

The video quality is low. Subtitles (English only) are not optional and leave quite a bit untranslated. The DVD contains no bonus features. But the film is a definite masterpiece and worth seeing by all means!

During the late `80s in Gorbachev's Soviet Union most film's took advantage of the liberalizing climate to address problems and realities that were often ignored in more oppressive times. Little Vera is one result. The story of a young rebellious girl in a dysfunctional Russian family confronted with adult decisions.

Natalya Negoda is wonderful as Vera, a confused and angry teenager growing into adulthood. Equally excellent is Yuri Nazarov as her alcoholic father. Vera self-destruction steers herself, her lover and the family into flurry of difficulties, including run-ins with police and pregnancy.

This is one of the more realistic depictions of life in Russia that I've seen on film (though most Russian families aren't this dysfunctional). In the midst of Vera's calamities and rebellion we see some genuinely touching scenes with her father, who in spite of her shortcomings and his own alcoholism loves her.

With excellent acting and directing, I highly recommend Little Vera.

"Malen'kaya Vera" opened in Russia in the late 80's, featuring the nation's first on-screen sex act between Natalia Negoda and Soviet heart-throb Andrei Sokolov (sort of a "Leonid" DiCaprio to Eastern teens). Picketers surrounded cinemas protesting it, decrying the morals-corrupting influence of depraved "Western values". Actually the sex scene is extremely tame by American standards. What made this film truly revolutionary was the heretofore prohibited portrayal of toxic family life, including grinding poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, despair, and youthful rebellion. The film may be ground-breaking, but it is also ear-splitting in its stridency. None of the characters are likable enough to care about what happens to them. As other reviewers have mentioned, the acting is superb. The film accomplishes its goal, but it is enough to see it just once.

If you were around prior to the fall of the Soviet Union them you may remember how eastern European and Russian women were depicted. The image of the East German female weightlifter who would put the Rock or Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame comes to mine.

What made this movie interesting is that it was one of the first times where you could see Soviet women depicted as women, as well as the crushing poverty that many still face in the Former Soviet Union.

If you are considering meeting and dating foreign women online then this is a recommended film for you. Not so much as a cautionary talk but rather as an eye opener.

Cheers!

During the late `80s in Gorbachev's Soviet Union most film's took advantage of the liberalizing climate to address problems and realities that were often ignored in more oppressive times. Little Vera is one result. The story of a young rebellious girl in a dysfunctional Russian family confronted with adult decisions.

Natalya Negoda is wonderful as Vera, a confused and angry teenager growing into adulthood. Equally excellent is Yuri Nazarov as her alcoholic father. Vera self-destruction steers herself, her lover and the family into flurry of difficulties, including run-ins with police and pregnancy.

This is one of the more realistic depictions of life in Russia that I've seen on film (though most Russian families aren't this dysfunctional). In the midst of Vera's calamities and rebellion we see some genuinely touching scenes with her father, who in spite of her shortcomings and his own alcoholism loves her.

With excellent acting and directing, I highly recommend Little Vera.

I've seen this film long ago in the former Soviet Union when first video-clubs were officially opened. People wathed this poor quality tape about SU everyday life and at first so close the sexual act with Natalya Negoda as Little Vera in soviet film was shown. It is hard to imagine how great was the influence of this one scene to youth in country where "sex was not at all". Russian actors played great as always but such themes as alcoholism, relationships between children and their parents were shown in very heavy ("No future") manner. For me it was enough to see this film just once.

I saw this movie when I was in Leningrad, before Gorbachev resigned Christmas Eve, 1991. The state-run television station ran it one evening, and I watched it with my Russian friends, who insisted it was a {adult film}. After the movie, the same people who thought they'd be able to see explicit {adult} scenes ended up sitting around the kitchen table discussing the movie over vodka and pickles as if it were an obscure painting of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Whatever, the movie gave me, as a United States citizen, an insight on Russian family, lifestyle, fears and hopes. To many Russians, it seems they consider the film effluvium to be dismissed as they are probably used to so much state-sponsored affect flotsam and jetsam. But to some of us "uneducated", it was enlightening and funny/ironic toward the end, with that "HAAA! HAAA!" attempt at mental escape.
Not to mention, Natalya Negoda is hot! Or should I say, sovsim garyatchaya...

The Bottom Line:

Revolutionary for its time (I believe it's the first Russian movie to show nudity and feature a sex scene), Little Vera now is a sometimes-interesting take on the lives of two lovers in 1980s that now functions better as a piece of history than as a film.

I've seen this film long ago in the former Soviet Union when first video-clubs were officially opened. People wathed this poor quality tape about SU everyday life and at first so close the sexual act with Natalya Negoda as Little Vera in soviet film was shown. It is hard to imagine how great was the influence of this one scene to youth in country where "sex was not at all". Russian actors played great as always but such themes as alcoholism, relationships between children and their parents were shown in very heavy ("No future") manner. For me it was enough to see this film just once.