Wings
Ukrainian-Soviet filmmaker Larisa Shepitko was only 28 when she directed her second feature, a searing & quietly impassioned character study of a woman caught between two ways of being, in the early aftermath of Khrushchev’s Thaw.
Please note: these screenings have unfortunately been cancelled due to a print shipping issue.
Ukrainian-born Soviet filmmaker Larisa Shepitko was only 28 when she directed her second feature, a searing and quietly impassioned character study of a woman caught between two ways of being, in the early aftermath of Khrushchev’s Thaw. Having long since settled into—or resigned herself to—a postwar career as the principal of a vocational school, middle-aged Nadezhda (Maya Bulgakova) is at once sustained and haunted by memories of her glorious youthful exploits as a celebrated World War II fighter pilot. Shepitko probes her protagonist’s interiority with unhurried naturalism and great empathy, following Nadezhda as she navigates a stark generation gap and seeks to come to terms with her own profound ambivalence.
Wings is deceptively simple, but extremely sophisticated in its writing and execution. Seemingly prosaic events during a day in the life of the main character (a Soviet head-mistress, formerly a WW2 aviation hero) add up to a very moving, nuanced and existential portrayal of a reserved and proud woman’s life and her longing for somewhere else. A movie about time, about feeling out of place and out of sync. An obvious inspiration while writing Oslo, August 31st. —Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt
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