The Pencil (SSSR)

Antonina is a painter from Saint Petersburg. Her husband is a political prisoner. He is sent to a prison in the deep north of Russia. Antonina moves to that province to be near him. There she starts teaching art at a local school. The town is closed and hard. In her class there is a twelve year old boy named Misha. The boy sets himself against her from the start. Misha’s brother leads a local gang. People in the town are wary of him. That fear reaches into the classroom. Antonina does not step back. She goes on teaching. Her relations with the town grow tighter. The film tells that resistance in a quiet register. Nadezhda Gorelova and Vladimir Mishukov appear in the ninety two minute film, a Russian production Natalya Nazarova finished in 2019.