Prix du public au Festival Pacific Meridian, 2003
Premier prix au Festival Automne de l'Amour (Амурская осень), 2004
Prix spécial au festival "Litterature et cinéma" à Gatchina, 2004
Plot synopsis
The film takes place over twenty years, from 1935 to the end of the fifties: the historical background gives the melodrama its dramatic dimension. It all begins on the beach with the meeting between a graceful and naive young girl and a passing officer with an eagle eye. The hero takes the heroine away from her family (her mother and her two little brothers and sisters), marries her and takes her to his garrison, far from everything. Brutally thrown into the harsh world of the military, subjected to trying servile tasks, the young woman faces exile with heroic courage. The moral suffering that awaits her will not overcome her love, made of humility and loyalty. The Second World War, however, puts her strength to the test once again: she must face the hazards of the refugee life alone. She forges her freedom there, while her husband sees his career destroyed by the intrigues of ambitious leaders. The post-war period brings them back to each other, and to the heroine's native country, but deeply transformed.
A story of unalterable mutual love, the story focuses on female self-denial in the face of the brutal authority of a husband who demands that his wife sacrifice her dreams of happiness to his will. In its praise of feminine virtues, the film suggests, through the reversal of the situation that the story brings about, the passage from a masculine universe to a feminine universe, the victory of women's humility over male pride. They appear as the custodians of continuity and fidelity to happiness.
