Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

SnoopyStyle Vera is a rebellious daughter of dissatisfied proletariat parents. Her father Kolya is an alcoholic. They keep referring to her older brother Victor who is a success in Moscow. They don't like her lifestyle or her friends. She falls for Sergei and decides to marry. It raises the tension in the family. Sergei and and Kolya don't get along. Sergei starts living with the family but it doesn't go well in one violent drunken confrontation.The film looks pretty grainy and weak compared to most indies of that time. It was sold as the first sex scene in Soviet cinema but there is nothing erotic about this movie. It is gritty, and dirty. The overbearing poverty is the backdrop. That is the more compelling aspect. The story of a rebellious daughter and family dysfunction is not necessarily original. It is somewhat new to see it portrayed about Russia at that time. The movie is filled with a downtrodden sadness and that goes for the lead actress Natalya Negoda. It's fine as a grungy indie and notable for being a Soviet film.

vbb76 I'm from an ex-communist country, SFR Yugoslavia, which didn't belong to the Eastern Bloc, but it was non-aligned and more liberal than the USSR. Erotica, violence and social commentary were common in our films and we had an access to western films. Maybe that's an explanation why "Little Vera" did not impress me much, no matter how "daring" it was for the soviet standards. This is one of the worst movies I've seen in my life. How come it received such awards and even a sort of cult status? The Wall Street Journal bombastically (mis)described it as: Sex, drugs and rocknroll! The Time Magazine praised it as: A smash hit! If you are looking for a soviet film along those lines, then forget "Little Vera" and watch "Avariya doch menta" (Avariya the Cop's Daughter).It's a rough social drama about the youth subcultures during the turbulent period of the Perestroika and it offers much more action and tension than "Little Vera".I thought that "Little Vera" would be something similar and although it's beginning was somewhat promising, I soon realized that my expectations were wrong.After some scenes of parties and violence, the movie slowed down and for the next hour and a half, it's protagonists were only mumbling something among themselves. It was painfully slow. Nothing much was happening, until suddenly everyone went nuts and almost killed each other for no apparent reason."Little Vera" is overrated just because it was the first soviet movie with a more explicit erotic scenes and it's main actress Natalya Negoda became the first real soviet sex symbol. That's all about the "importance" of this film in the history of cinema. Explicit erotica was a shocking novelty for the soviet audience in those days, but naked breasts and simulated sex alone do not make a movie great.Speaking of drugs, there is some abuse of legal tranquilizers mixed with alcohol in the film, but this is not a story about heroin addicts or something like that, as some of you may expected.The "rocknroll" in "Little Vera" is actually the bubble gum pop singer Sofia Rotaru, who was already 40 at the time of the filming. Not much a "youth rebellion". In comparison, "Avariya doch menta" features punk rock and heavy metal music, which was much more dangerous and radical in those days.The Wall Street Journal's "Sex, drugs & rocknroll" description only partially fits "Little Vera" and it's misguiding to a large extent. And it's not really a "hit movie" as the Time Magazine said. On the contrary, "Little Vera" is more a sort of psychological drama.Some of the movie posters that I found online are also misguiding. They would make you think you that this is a crime movie. or even an action-comedy.I'm not so much disappointed by the movie itself, but I'm more disappointed by it's inaccurate description and the exaggerated praise in the media.I understand that "Little Vera" has some qualities. It was noticed not only for it's explicit erotica, but also for it's social commentary.It shows the depressing provincial towns of the Soviet Union and families living in small claustrophobic flats. It shows how the youngsters began to rebel against the authority during the Perestroika.Vera's father is depicted as a drunk, while her mother is like "what the neighbors will think". You get the picture.Back then this was considered a brave social criticism.But anyway, the film left me completely emotionless. I felt absolutely no sympathy or compassion for Vera, even less for her boyfriend Sergei (Andrey Sokolov), who behaves like an arrogant pr****.Even the drunk father was a more interesting character in the film than both of them, though they are the main protagonists in it.If you are looking for more "edgy" films about the youths in the former USSR, then watch the aforementioned "Avariya doch menta", then "Menya zovut Arlekino", "Patsany", "Rokovaya oshibka", "Luna Park" or the more recent "Lilja 4-ever".

kittinjc Little Vera is the story of a Russian teenager, her family, and her attempts to find meaning and value in a life sliding increasingly into decay. In her search for meaning, she falls in love with a more intellectual and rebellious Sergei, whose hatred for her deeply flawed parents quickly spirals out of control.Little Vera is shocking and disturbing in nearly every way. The drinking of the father, the enabling and lack of understanding of the mother, the casual lies and misdirection of the brother, and Vera herself forgiving them all their flaws are all shocking and slightly disturbing to watch. However, the raw honesty of the film somehow manages to become even more shocking than the plot or characters. Set in cramped spaces and vast urban decay, Little Vera presented a vastly different view of Soviet life than had ever been seen before. In fact, Little Vera is a portrait of the collapse of Soviet society painted in shades of pain, desperation, and rust. It is the implosion of a family set against the implosion of an entire social order.Although painful and desperately unsatisfying, the film itself is definitely worth seeing, if only to understand the feelings and cultures still reshaping Russia today.

Lee Eisenberg One of the major aspects of "Malenkaya Vera" (called "Little Vera" in English) is that it was the first movie from the Soviet Union that featured a sex scene, albeit a short one. The title is important: Vera is the Russian word for "faith", identifying that punk Vera (Natalya Negoda) has little faith in the Soviet system. And as the movie shows, there's not much faith to be had in it. The opening scene shows the bleak industrial town of Zhdanov, nearly a hell on earth. When Vera's lover Sergei (Andrey Sokolov) moves in with her family, it leads to some unexpected events.Like in many Russian movies, people's names describe their characters. For example, there's Viktor (remember that "victor" means winner). All in all, this is a good look at the Soviet Union while it was collapsing - and we can see why it was collapsing. Really good.