Uncle Vanya

Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy
Cast: Irina Anisimova-Wulf, Sergey Bondarchuk, Irina Kupchenko
Soviet Union, 1971, 104’, black & white, color
Russian with Turkish subtitles

Chekhov's masterwork about the breakdown of a family held together by a tissue of lies and self-deception is brought to stunning life in Andrei Konchalovsky's brilliant adaptation. A retired professor returns with his new, much younger wife in tow to the estate that he inherited from his now-deceased first wife. The estate is still managed by his former brother-in-law, Vanya, a man who has learned to suppress all his personal desires and dreams. The delicate balance that defines the world of this fading clan is decidedly upset by the arrival of the professor's new wife, and once broken that balance will prove impossible to restore. Konchalovsky effectively captures the mood of a world coming to an end, the peeling paint and slightly ramshackle condition of the house signals the future of the characters even more succinctly than their actions.