Slutschajnaja wstretscha

The Dzerzhinsky toy factory shows itself from its best side: as a workers' paradise. The employees hardly ever work, but they do lots of sports. They all enjoy themselves and always have a song on their lips. The popular blonde forewoman succeeds in everything she does. She is the shining light of the factory. The children, as test shoppers, are delighted with their new toy collection. And as a genuine sporting ace, the forewoman is assigned a personal trainer – and immediately falls in love with him. But it is not without consequences … As he doesn't want their child, she is faced with a profound moral conflict. With the help of her collective, she struggles through, right up to her magnificent performance at the Spartakiade.
One of the late works by the socialist-realist studio, whose days were already numbered. The young director, Savchenko, specialises in music films and melodramas and, in this respect, faithfully follows Stalin's line. Yet even in these dramatic years, when the terror was just beginning, the studio still attached greater importance to the quality of the films than to ideology. Consequently, following accusations of “formalism”, the film had to be revised. Soon after its launch in the cinemas in 1936, it was completely withdrawn from distribution.

Print courtesy of Gosfilmofond, Moscow