FemmeFilmFest20 Review: Three Poplars in Plyushchikha Street (Tatyana Lioznova)

Three Poplars in Plyushchikha Street (1968) is a Russian romantic-comedy, being a success for the Russian film industry with 26 million people seeing it in the USSR. Directed by Tatyana Lioznova, this film stars Tatiana Doronina, Oleg Efremov and Vyacheslav Shalevich.

Based on the story “Three Poplars in Shabolovka” by Alexander Borschagovsky, this film follows a married woman and mother of two, Nyura (Doronina), who leaves her village to go to Moscow to sell some ham and pick up her sister-in-law. When travelling to Plyushchikha Street though, she meets a taxi driver, Sasha (Yefremov), and their encounter makes them look at their lives and how things could have turned out differently.

This is certainly not a unique story, and yet in this case it feels completely personal to the director. Lioznova has complete focus on the purpose of the story and the journey that the lead character, Nyura, takes throughout the film. There is real progression in her character and every action that she takes feels justified.

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Tatiana Doronina does a fantastic job balancing the emotions that Nyura has to go through on her journey. I was also not expecting some musical moments in the film, but I have to say that Doronina does a really good job there as well, giving some personality to the character of Nyura alongside the singing.

The film is a short 79 minutes long, the perfect length of time for a story of this nature. The editing is sharp, making the pacing of the film run smoothly and keeping audience’s engaged in the story throughout. From the gorgeous long shot to set up the village in the title sequence, to the bird’s eye viewpoint the audience gets of the journey that Nyura takes from the village to Moskow, the audience is there through every moment. And the editing sucks us into the scene, daring not to be quick and take us out at any moment.

What I appreciated about the presentation of the film was the dialogue and how natural it felt. There was no major exposition to set up characters or their backgrounds, they felt like people who existed before the camera started rolling. Their roles are already established and conversations sounded like what people would say on a daily basis, something that is surprisingly rare in films nowadays. There is something so grounded in nature about this film that adds to the charm of the final product.

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Whilst the main character of Nyura is well-explored and realised, I did have some issues with how other characters were written. Nyura’s husband, Grisha (played by Vyacheslav Shalevich) is purely shown as someone that she feels trapped by. He is not given a chance to develop or to be fleshed out and I think perhaps more time on the film could have allowed for that development to happen. There are other characters in the film as well, such as the sister-in-law, that are in place purely to drive the narrative forward and to give a reason for Nyura to go on a journey, rather than have their own character arcs and personality.

Due to the nature of the story and how the characters are written, the film does feel dated looking back at it. Whilst it is not as dated as it could have been, mainly down to Lioznova’s direction and adding a feminine voice to what is usually a male-focused story, there are still lines said that took me aback. This was during a time when women would traditionally play the role of a housewife and be defined by her children and husband, and there were lines about men having power to slap their wives that were just shocking. Whether intended or just part of life in Russia during that time, it adds a shock value and further shows the reasons why Nyura may want some independence.

This is a film that, before I saw it feature in the Femme Filmmakers Festival for this year, I had never heard of, and I can guarantee you that for some people, this review is the first exposure to this film. I am extremely glad though that I was given the pleasure to review it, as I found myself immersed into this world and caring about what Lioznova wanted to say. The film is currently available to watch for free over on Amazon Prime, and for the short runtime it is worth the watch.