Description:
A film d'auteur and a formally innovative provincial melodrama, Brief Encounters was censored for its ambiguous message and a narrative style that did not conform to the conventions of socialist realism – particularly the requirement that cinema be intelligible to the masses.
After leaving their native village, Nadia and her friend travel to the big city. Along the way, Nadia gets a job in a teashop and meets Maxim, a charming young geologist of whom she becomes enamoured. Maksim has traded his comforts and lovely wife Valya, a model Soviet woman who is imprisoned in her successes and conventionalities, for the freedom of the open field. When Nadia ends up in Valya's town, the latter hires her as a maid and puts her up at her house not being aware that they have Maxim in common.
“I always work with an elaborate screenplay, but during the shoot it remains possible to add or change things. I hear something, see something; someone remarks about something, or particular associations develop. The film is constantly changing and deepening. I always start with a strictly chronological story, written in prose. When the film has been through all the various stages – script preparation, rehearsals, shooting, and finally, editing – all chronology has disappeared, and the film consists only of flashbacks, memories, repetitions, and associations.” (Kira Muratova)