Cult classic of Soviet-Ukrainian cinema from a master of emotional depth and elegant restraint, Roman Balayan.
On the eve of his fortieth birthday, ordinary Soviet engineer Sergei Makarov looks back on his life and realizes that he has achieved nothing. He has found no happiness himself, nor has he been able to bring it to those closest to him: not to his long-suffering wife, nor to his young mistress, nor even to his friends.
Flights in Dreams and Reality is a compelling portrait of a man who never truly grew up and cannot find his place in a period of social stagnation. Roman Balayan presents a gifted, charming, yet infantile and lost protagonist as an anti-hero—an emblem of his unheroic times. Oleg Yankovsky's performance in this film earned him the USSR State Prize. The midlife crisis depicted in Flights in Dreams and Reality is often perceived as a critique of Brezhnevian stagnation. Released in 1982, the film became a genuine hit of the early Perestroika era, drawing 6.5 million viewers the following year.
The first screening will include a short introduction by Nastya Feschuk, the curator of the Urban Prose series.