Uncle Vanya

The retired professor Serebryakov arrives at the country estate with Yelena, his much younger second wife. The estate has been run for years by Vanya and by Sonya, the professor's daughter from his first marriage, who send the money it makes to the city. Both Vanya and Doctor Astrov fall for Yelena. Then the professor announces that he intends to sell the estate. Andrei Konchalovsky directed the film from Chekhov's play, with Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy as Vanya and Sergey Bondarchuk as Astrov. Konchalovsky does not open the play out, he closes it in: the film takes place almost entirely indoors and drops from colour to black and white at times. The subject is a wasted life: nobody gets what they want and everybody has to stay.