An early film of famed Russian director Larisa Shepitko, "Wings" is the story of a Nadezhda (Mayya Bulgakova), a former pilot considered a hero of the state. Rewarded for her wartime exploits, she is now the principal of a vocational school. She also holds a largely inconsequential bureaucratic position.
Emotionally unfulfilled, she daydreams about flying and dogfights.
With a peripatetic plot that is almost "slice of life", "Wings" explores the quotidian details of her life--small emergencies at school, her unsatisfactory relationships with her daughter and with a male friend.
The result is an examination of midlife crisis, the transfer of the military lifestyle to civilian life, and a feminist view of job roles in society. Nadezhda seems clueless about the causes of her own dissatisfaction with life. And her students serve as surrogates for military comrades and her own children as she tries to organize her life in a manner she feels is correct.
This film lacks a focus that would make it more relevant.
Emotionally unfulfilled, she daydreams about flying and dogfights.
With a peripatetic plot that is almost "slice of life", "Wings" explores the quotidian details of her life--small emergencies at school, her unsatisfactory relationships with her daughter and with a male friend.
The result is an examination of midlife crisis, the transfer of the military lifestyle to civilian life, and a feminist view of job roles in society. Nadezhda seems clueless about the causes of her own dissatisfaction with life. And her students serve as surrogates for military comrades and her own children as she tries to organize her life in a manner she feels is correct.
This film lacks a focus that would make it more relevant.