by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
This engaging Soviet drama about a doomed love affair works in its gentle approach to the romance between Solomyi (Vera Donskoy) and her boyfriend, but is less effective in its political message about staying within one's own national borders. The time is the 1930s and Solomyi has been forced into a marriage of convenience for her family, but not for her. So she and her boyfriend run away with several other peasants to Bessarabia. That is their first mistake. The second is to take shelter within a band of "thieving" gypsies who are being hunted by the police. Sure enough, the police close in and the couple is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
