Directed by Vasily Shukshin • 1972 • USSR/Russia

Vasily Shukshin delivers perhaps his most arresting film with this story of a Siberian tractor driver and his wife travelling to the Black Sea riviera for the first time. Along the way, our rural couple collide with various urban archetypes, including a linguistics professor and a con artist, their humorous interactions providing a cross-section of life in the USSR and the subtle classism of a supposedly classless society. Shukshin’s characters are imbued with his trademark melancholy and good humour.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY • ПЕЧКИ-ЛАВОЧКИ
Written and directed by Vasily Shukshin
Cinematography by Anatoly Zabolotsky
Music by Pavel Chekalov
Starring: Vasily Shukshin, Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina, Vsevolod Sanayev

In Russian with English subtitles