Synopsis

Bored on his vacation in a seaside resort in Yalta on the south coast of the Crimea, bank employee Dimitri Gurov soon shows interest in the arrival of a beautiful lady and her dog. As fate willed, they meet and feel their attraction towards each other. Picture-perfect, if not both were already married. A future together seems impossible, the farewell inevitable and thus, Dimitri and Anna part to go back to their ordinary lives. Shortly after his return, Dimitri is depressed and realises how much he misses Anna and begins to look for her. The slow and minimalistic approach characterises Iosif Kheifits’ film which is based on a short story by Anton Chekov. Whilst dialogues are kept short and to the point, music is used to a great extent. Sudden changes of scenery highlight the unpredictability of the development of Dimitri and Anna’s relationship. Sticking with the literary original, the film refrains from a moral judgement of the events. As the Encyclopedia of International Films says: “A love and adultery story of hopeless melancholy in which the bourgeois decadence of the late Tsarist Russia is artistically brought into the present.”