Carnival (Russian: Карнавал, romanized: Karnaval) is a 1981 Soviet musical comedy-drama film directed by Tatyana Lioznova.[1][2]
Plot
In a small Uralic city lives a young woman, Nina Solomatina, with her mother. Her father left her as a child and moved to Moscow. Dreaming study acting, Nina comes to Moscow, but fails the entrance examinations to the theatrical school. Deciding to try to enter next year, Nina temporarily moves in with her father and his family. Striving to provide for herself, she goes to work, but because of various incidents, she is not able to stay anywhere for a long time. In her personal life, Nina also suffers a fiasco – Muscovite student Nikita very quickly breaks up with her for a new girl. As a result, Nina begins to understand that the big city is not the eternal carnival she imagined it to be, and instead of conquering the world, the main heroine returns to her home – to care of her ill mother.
The film ends on an ambiguous note – Nina Solomatina appears as a famous singer performing at the full hall, it is not clear if all this is real, or just her imagination.
Vladimir Balashov as member of the Admission Committee
Vladimir Smirnov as neighbor who brought a table
Roman Monastyrsky as Dima, Nina's paternal half-brother
Margarita Zharova as conductor
Claudia Kozlenkova as woman in the subway
Anatoly Pidgorodetsky as entrant
Tamara Yarenko as neighbor
Yakov Belenky as neighbor
Reception
Carnival was the ninth most popular film at the box-office in the Soviet Union in 1982; it was seen by 30,4 million viewers.[3]
In the same year, for her leading performance, Irina Muravyova was recognized as the best actress according to the results of a survey of readers of the magazine Soviet Screen.[4]
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