A film by a Soviet writer and director Vasily Shukshin "Your son and brother" was released in 1966. The plot has three parts each of which is connected to the previous one and to the first. The film is an adaptation of Shukshin's stories and tells us about a family. The parents, their son Vasily and daughter Vera live in a village, two other sons, Maxim and Ignat, live in Moscow and another one, Stepan, flees prison. The film starts with country scenes. Stepan escapes and his family celebrates his return without knowing it's illegal. A policeman comes for him, takes him back and the only one who sees that is the dumb sister Vera. The action moves to the city where Maxim gets a letter from his mother saying she has sciatica and asking him to buy snake venom. He runs all over the pharmacies but can't find the medicine or buy it over the counter. Maxim comes to the hospital to get the prescription but still can't get the drug and finally the head of the hospital decides to help him. The last part takes us back to the village. Ignat and his wife come to visit the family and bring everyone gifts and medicine for the mother. At the end a letter from Stepan arrives which says he is probably going to be released soon.
Shukshin's characters are simple and frank. There are no complex individual portraits, only a diverse portrait of folk. That diversity is where conflicts stem from - the conflicts of village and city, of fathers and children. They are reflected in Ignat's dialogue with his father - the father wants him to live and help him in the village while Ignat doesn't want to move out of Moscow.
Moving on to technical details. The majority of the scenes is shot on location in village. The camera is always in motion, following the characters and showing rural views. There are a lot of scenes shot in one take. We see symmetry and positioning in the frame which is made with the help of the interior (doorways, a woodstove, curtains, windows, etc). For example, there is a scene in a bathhouse where one of the characters stands in the foreground and the other is far from him and that positioning creates depth. In the final scene the camera moves continually from one character to another stopping only at Stepan's letter. There are almost no details, only master shots, medium shots and close-ups to communicate emotional states, e.g., in the scene where Vera sees Stepan being taken back to prison. The scenes of the village and the city are different in color shade and light. In the village scenes gray is more pale and pastel in tone which adds more light. The film also uses voice-over, e.g. In the scene of Maxim and father talking about the medicine. The editing tells a story, it is narrative and also parallel in some scenes like those with Maxim, Ignat and his wife. The overall pace of the film is even and slow, as if time has been stretched out. Unlike most Soviet 1930-40s films, the World War and love themes aren't present here. The film shows a life of regular Russian people, each with their own problems, people who aren't burdened by dreams about the unattainable.
Shukshin's characters are simple and frank. There are no complex individual portraits, only a diverse portrait of folk. That diversity is where conflicts stem from - the conflicts of village and city, of fathers and children. They are reflected in Ignat's dialogue with his father - the father wants him to live and help him in the village while Ignat doesn't want to move out of Moscow.
Moving on to technical details. The majority of the scenes is shot on location in village. The camera is always in motion, following the characters and showing rural views. There are a lot of scenes shot in one take. We see symmetry and positioning in the frame which is made with the help of the interior (doorways, a woodstove, curtains, windows, etc). For example, there is a scene in a bathhouse where one of the characters stands in the foreground and the other is far from him and that positioning creates depth. In the final scene the camera moves continually from one character to another stopping only at Stepan's letter. There are almost no details, only master shots, medium shots and close-ups to communicate emotional states, e.g., in the scene where Vera sees Stepan being taken back to prison. The scenes of the village and the city are different in color shade and light. In the village scenes gray is more pale and pastel in tone which adds more light. The film also uses voice-over, e.g. In the scene of Maxim and father talking about the medicine. The editing tells a story, it is narrative and also parallel in some scenes like those with Maxim, Ignat and his wife. The overall pace of the film is even and slow, as if time has been stretched out. Unlike most Soviet 1930-40s films, the World War and love themes aren't present here. The film shows a life of regular Russian people, each with their own problems, people who aren't burdened by dreams about the unattainable.
