Historical Film Review: Devchata (1961) and Soviet Cinema

This report provides a detailed review of the 1961 Soviet film 'Devchata', directed by Yuri Chulyukin. The film, a romantic comedy set in a Siberian village, is analyzed within the context of Khrushchev's Thaw, a period of de-Stalinization and relaxation of censorship. The review explores the film's characters, themes of love and community, and the director's use of cinematic techniques to represent the era's social and political climate. It highlights the film's optimistic view of the new generation and its reflection of the values of the time. The analysis also examines the film's connection to the Soviet New Wave conventions and the influence of Italian Neo-Realism and French Nouvelle Vague. The report also explores the film's portrayal of humanistic characters and their struggles, as well as its reflection of neoleninism and the importance of individual and communal presence. Overall, the review offers a comprehensive understanding of 'Devchata' as a significant work of Soviet cinema.

Running head: HISTORICAL FILM REVIEW
Historical film review: Devchata
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HISTORICAL FILM REVIEW
‘Devchata’ (1961, directed by Yuri Chulyukin) is Russian romantic comedy film. It was
one of the most popular soviet films during the 60s. This is about a young girl named Tosya who
just graduated from a culinary school and has come to start her new job at a Siberian village. She
takes Ilya’s flirt as true romance. Ilya made a bet to his friends to seduce her. At the big dance,
her roommates tell her the truth. She comes to know from Filya that it was actually a bet and that
too for a hat. Her heart breaks, she runs outside and starts crying. After few days Ilya tries to
convince her that he actually loves her and he is sorry for the prank. However Tosya is not ready
to accept his love and forgiveness. Later in an attic they reconcile and experience their first kiss.
Director Yuri Chulyukin was graduated from The Russian State University of
Cinematography (VGIK) in 1956, where he later became a professor. The film school experience
helped him to master in the art of film language. Later he worked for Mosfilm and for television
for brief period of time.
1950s and 1960s is better known as the era of Khrushchev’s Thaw in the Russian history.
Thaw literally means the warmer weather that defrosts the snow and brings a more alive weather.
The social political connection is that after Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev’s de-
Stalinization censorship thawed the Russian society’s snow of suffocation and repression.
Khrushchev released most political prisoners from Stalin’s era and relaxed the censorship and
repression. ‘Devchata’ represents that warm period in the cinematic universe of Russia. The film
is light hearted romantic drama; the characters are warm and alive. The director wanted to
represent a time and a Soviet society where people are more humanistic that before. They are
free to choose their way of life and seek happiness in their own ways. The message is implicit
because the representations are often symbolical and subtle. The director consciously avoided the
direct political scenario of that time. His cinematic universe belongs to common everyday

HISTORICAL FILM REVIEW
people, who seek happiness and peace in life. The political peaceful co existence reflected in the
film’s community and characters as well, but in an indirect manner. The film is from a common
man’s perspective and it tells the story of ordinary human beings. This black and white film
explored the beauty of snow covered Siberia. The forest, the village and the camp represented
the life and its closeness. He director uses few metaphorical images in a very subtle manner,
which signifies some simple truth of life. Amidst the coldness people are looking for bit warmth.
Several shots of the piled up wood pieces bring the warmth in the environment and serves the
metaphorical purpose. The characters are physically close; as we see they sleep or hand out
together in small spaces. However, the characters or the spectators both do not feel any
suffocation due to the limited space, rather the closeness, intimacy and limitation brings forward
the coziness, the warmth of the bodies and hearts. The film uses a very simple plot plays with the
character of Tosya who brings life to the film’s world by her physical humor and facial
expressions. In an early scene where the supervisor reacted after knowing that she doesn’t have a
pillow and she is a new cook, he said “Pillows are in short supply, and a cook with no
professional experience? Ugh!” The old and authority’s perception about the new generation is
also criticized, as Tosya soon proved him wrong by doing a great job and establishing her
presence. The simple or complicated facts of life have been sewed with the film’s narrative. The
humorous episodes are throughout the film and well connected, just like life. Nadya is does not
want to end up as an old cook so she has compromised her love life by choosing someone not so
good. However the man, who Tosya calls as ‘Mangy’, tries to love and care for her in his best
possible way. Or the character of Anfisa, whose insecurities get expressed through her flirts to
men. The film deals with humanistic characters, which has strength and weakness both. They
make mistake, they accept sad truth of life yet all of them are struggling to find happiness. Their

HISTORICAL FILM REVIEW
simple approach towards life of accepting and moving on helps them to reach their desires. Ilya
had made a mistake; he confessed it and finally achieved the happiness with the help of Tosya.
The film represented an optimistic view of Khrushchev’s Russia (Strukov and Helena
2016, 246). The post world war, the Italian Neo Realism or French Nouvelle Vague marked
significantly in the world of Cinema. After Stalin’s demise, the political changes in Khruschev’s
time the new soviet cinema saw possibility. In Devchata, the spectators experience the presence
of nature in relationship with humans. The tradition of visual expression over sound or narrative
is absent here. The film followed a different path than the contemporary tradition of multiple
superimpositions, subjective camera angles and panoramic shots. Yuri was a new generation
Russian filmmaker who was free from the studio-system of Stalin era. Devchata successfully
portrays the peaceful existence of the community and the individual. The film shows the
symptoms of Soviet new wave conventions of that period. Some of them are the season’s
presence in the film’s narrative and two contradictory characters’ falling in love. The period of
gave much importance to the value of that period which is to provide equal importance to the
individual human being and his communal presence. Tosya or Ilya represents the new
generation. Their individual presence and their relationship with the community, the community
consists of his or her friends get much importance. This new generation’s self reflexivity is being
represented through the characters of Tosya or Ilya. The return of revolution’s idea as
neoleninism can be interpreted here. The director’s sensibility and consciousness towards the
community and its relationship with the individual human beings gets expressed clearly. The
neoleninism is nothing but bringing back the purity of ideas, which was betrayed in the Stalin
era. The VGIK student Yuri was one of the Soviet liberal intelligentsia who believed and
implemented the potential of human and socialism. The spontaneity of everyday life is being

HISTORICAL FILM REVIEW
projected in the film most simple way. Khruschev was very aware and appreciated the youth’s
presence in the films. In one of the last scenes where the community is present then the narrative
focused on the two characters can be interpreted as the communal presence acts as the tribute to
the contemporary tradition. However reconciliation of Tosya and Ilya represents the Thaw. After
the death of Stalin, Khrushchev brought a revolutionary era when people were liberated from
preexisted extreme repression (Goff 2015, 27-44). The new young generation was free. However
the idea of woman needs to get married in order to become socially accepted is presented in this
film like any another Soviet film of that time (Sideri 2012, 496-497). Even in the wilderness of
Serbia, Tosya is struggling to build up a conventional love and family life indicates that. Like
when she expressed her shock by seeing Vera burning her husband’s letter. This becomes more
evident when Anfisa says “When you’re 28 years old and still unmarried, like Nadya, even a
goat will do.” Nadya’s compromise to get a happy family life is also evident of the matter.
Reference
Goff, Krista A. "“Why not love our language and our culture?” National rights and citizenship in
Khrushchev's Soviet Union." Nationalities Papers 43, no. 1 (2015): 27-44.
Sideri, Eleni. "Nation, language, Islam: Tatarstan's sovereignty movement–By Helen M.
Faller." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 18, no. 2 (2012): 496-497.
Strukov, Vlad, and Helena Goscilo, eds. Russian Aviation, Space Flight and Visual Culture. Vol.
70. Taylor & Francis, 2016.