Maria´s Lovers

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1984, 103 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

In the opening black-and-white scene, interviews with soldiers being treated for mental trauma (excerpts from a post-war doc by John Huston) intermingle with the words of a young man longing to go home. Ivan was able to survive torture in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp thanks only to his memories of an attractive girl from the neighbourhood named Maria; as a result, he idolises her. Upon returning home to the Yugoslav minority in the small American town where he lives, Ivan is regarded as a hero but finds it hard to fit in with his renewed life. Worst of all, his relationship with Maria, whom he has married, is marked by the torment of unfulfilled physical love: “You dreamed about her for too long. She lives in your dreams but not in your body.” – Andrei Konchalovsky’s first American film draws on his Russian roots, evident in the mentality of the heroes and the rendering of the environment. Full of overwrought emotions and nostalgic reflections, the work moves beyond its erotic dimension to become an existential drama, with excellent performances from John Savage’s and Nastassja Kinski.

About the director

Andrei Konchalovsky (b. 1937, Moscow) is an international award-winning film and theatre director. After debuting with The First Teacher (Pervyy uchitel, 1965), he shot The Story of Asya Klyachina (Istoriya Asi Klyachinoy, 1966; banned by the censors, released 1986), the adaptations A Nest of Gentlefolk (Dvoryanskoe gnezdo, 1969) and Uncle Vanya (Dyadya Vanya, 1970), the poetic A Lover’s Romance (Romans o vlyublyonnykh,1974) and the epic Siberiade (Sibiriada, 1979). In the US he made Maria’s Lovers (1984), Runaway Train (1985), Duet for One (1986), Shy people (1987), Homer & Eddie (1989) and Tango & Cash (1989). Back at home he then made The Inner Circle (Blizhniy krug, 1991), a continuation of Asya’s tale entitled Ryaba My Chicken (Kurochka Ryaba, 1994) and the war film House of Fools (Dom durakov, 2002, screened at Karlovy Vary in 2003).