Preserving the text of the play, the amazing dialogues, the brilliant characters, we have transposed the action into today′s Russian provinces and changed only one thing: the age of the heroes. In Anton Chekhov′s play the heroines are aged around 25; now they are 55. What does that do?
The heroes′ retorts, stylistically inappropriate from today′s twenty-year-olds, are absolutely organic for the older generation, the ‘Soviet’ intelligentsia.
The problems of Chekhov′s classical work concerning the search for a meaning in life, the loss of ideals, the fear before death without having achieved anything in the world, the desire to be useful to others — all these things are also a typical attribute of the Soviet intelligentsia. The film brings out the continuity of Russian culture and the fear to lose the link between generations.
Chekhov′s carefully recreated play is shown in the language of contemporary cinema that will allow the spectators to see afresh the axiomatic text and realize its continued urgency.
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