The Girls

Tosya has just finished catering school. She is sent to a logging enterprise in Siberia as a cook. She is small, talkative and afraid of nothing. She shares a room in the hostel with three women. The best worker at the enterprise is Ilya; good looking, confident and used to attention from women. He makes a bet with his friends: he will win Tosya over. Tosya does not know. A relationship begins and Ilya forgets the bet. Then Tosya finds out. Yuri Chulyukin directs. Nadezhda Rumyantseva plays Tosya and Nikolai Rybnikov plays Ilya. It is a Soviet production. The film reached a very wide audience in the Soviet Union and was among the most watched productions of its time. Nadezhda Rumyantseva became known through the part and the character took a lasting place in Soviet cinema. Its ground is a logging camp; the working conditions, hostel life and the production plan are shown directly. The narrative fits the official account of the period but the characters are not types; Tosya bows to nobody and does not accept an apology easily. The songs became known separately and were played for a long time. The snow and forest scenes were shot in real conditions. Its limit is structure; the plot is simple and the conflict low. Who it is for: viewers who like Soviet comedy and period films of the sixties. Who it is not for: it is simple, predictable, and the period narrative plain.