Dama a sobachkoi = Lady with the little dog

In Yalta, at the end of the 19th century, an unhappily married woman goes on a holiday alone, walking her dog daily to relive her ennui. A banker named Dimitri, beguiled by Anna’s beauty, admires her from afar, himself suffering in a miserable arranged marriage. The two embark upon a hopeless affair, which Anna assumes will end with the holiday. Dimitri returns to Moscow but distracted by the memory of Anna, contrives to see her again. Back in Saratov, Anna is equally as depressed and most surprised when Dimitri arrives at a concert she is attending. Drawn together by their misery, the lovers continue to meet intermittently in the hope of salvaging a schism of love from their ruined lives. Displaying a fondness for the manners and social mores of turn of the century Russia, Heifits contrasts the brightness of Yalta in summer (symbolic of the passionate beginnings of the affair), with the cold Moscow winter. The low-key direction and emotional undercurrents of the film adequately reflect the power of Chekhov’s prose.

Credits: Director, writer, Josef Heifits ; photography, Andrei Moskvin, D. Meschiev ; music, Jiri Sternwald.
Cast: Iya Savvina, Aleksei Batalov, Nina Alisova, Pantelejmon Krymov, D. Zebrovv, M. Safonova.