Ludmilla, Katrina and Antonia are three young women who have come to Moscow from the country in the late 1950s to seek husbands and a better life. All three live together in a dormitory and work in a factory while seeking the brighter future promised by the big city. Antonia finds a dull but conventional man and settles into a traditional marriage with him. Ludmilla meets and marries a hockey player who leads an exciting life on the ice but is not very reliable off the ice. Katrina meets and falls in love with a charming TV cameraman named Gurin. But once she becomes pregnant, Gurin abandons rather than marrying her. At the end of Part I, we see Katrina as she struggles with work, night school and raising her fatherless daughter.
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Part II opens twenty years later. Antonia is settled in her comfortable but unexciting marriage. Ludmilla is twice divorced and still looking for her ideal man. Katrina has become a successful manager with her daughter now in college. The three are still friends but have lost some of the idealism of their youth. Things change when Gosha, a somewhat mysterious locksmith meets and begins to court Katrina. Just as their love is developing Gurin, still a low level cameraman, reappears and suddenly becomes interested in the daughter and mother that he abandoned years ago. After some additional obstacles love triumphs and Katrina finds the love that she sought when she first moved to Moscow.
The plot is predictable but enjoyable and the acting excellent. The film is in Russian with English sub-titles but it was easy to follow. While differences in language, culture and time cause foreign viewers to lose much of the comedy the story is still good and the film's entertainment value is not diminished. In addition to a good story the film is also provides a good glimpse of life in urban Russia in the late 1950s and 1970s.
The review of this Movie prepared by Chuck Nugent
