It's Muratova's first full-length feature film (actually co-directed with her husband Alexander Muratov) and i'm very surprised with her familiarity with nuances of village life and its customs. Muratova is very modern person (I'd even say post-modern), and it was unexpected, for me personally, that her first movie would be so rural. But for real artist the movie subject doesn't really matter, it's kind of context which needed for another masterpiece.. The main character Makar is very plain person, abnormally preoccupied with his work. In spite of being sociable and communicative, deep inside he's very lonely..at work and at home. His colleagues participate in his worries, but don't really understand him. It's not typical description of the leader in communist era, but anyhow this movie was accepted by local authorities. Actually it was the first and the last work which was approved by soviet regime. Since the next movie "Brief Encounters" she'll be constantly criticized and even called "bourgeois film maker".