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IMDbPro

La petite Véra

Original title: Malenkaya Vera
  • 1988
  • Unrated
  • 2h 8m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
La petite Véra (1988)
DramaRomance

A teenage girl, who has just finished school feels trapped and aimless in her ordinary Russian family, supported by an alcoholic father, in a dull industrial town.A teenage girl, who has just finished school feels trapped and aimless in her ordinary Russian family, supported by an alcoholic father, in a dull industrial town.A teenage girl, who has just finished school feels trapped and aimless in her ordinary Russian family, supported by an alcoholic father, in a dull industrial town.

  • Director
    • Vasili Pichul
  • Writers
    • Mariya Khmelik
    • Igor Shaferan
  • Stars
    • Natalya Negoda
    • Andrey Sokolov
    • Yuriy Nazarov
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.9/10
    2.3K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Vasili Pichul
    • Writers
      • Mariya Khmelik
      • Igor Shaferan
    • Stars
      • Natalya Negoda
      • Andrey Sokolov
      • Yuriy Nazarov
    • 18User reviews
    • 10Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 7 wins & 9 nominations total

    Photos115

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    Top cast24

    Edit
    Natalya Negoda
    Natalya Negoda
    • Vera
    Andrey Sokolov
    Andrey Sokolov
    • Sergey Sokolov
    Yuriy Nazarov
    Yuriy Nazarov
    • Nikolay - otets Very
    Lyudmila Zaytseva
    Lyudmila Zaytseva
    • Rita - mama Very
    Aleksandr Negreba
    Aleksandr Negreba
    • Viktor - brat Very
    • (as Alexander Alexseyev Negreba)
    Aleksandra Tabakova
    Aleksandra Tabakova
    • Lenka Chistyakova
    • (as Alexandra Tabakova)
    Andrey Fomin
    • Andryusha
    Aleksandr Mironov
    Aleksandr Mironov
    • Tolik
    Aleksandr Lenkov
    Aleksandr Lenkov
    • Mikhail Petrovich
    A. Vasilyev
    Gennady Goryachev
    • Sledovatel
    • (as G. Goryachev)
    Vadim Zakharchenko
    Vadim Zakharchenko
    • Muzhchina v bolnichnoy palate
    • (as V. Zakharchenko)
    Elena Maryutina
    • Sledovatel
    Tatyana Mitrushina
    Tatyana Mitrushina
    • mama Andryushi
    Elena Fishkina
    Mariya Khmelik
    Mariya Khmelik
    • podruga Viktora
    • (as M. Khmelik)
    Natasha Smeyan
    • dochka Mikhaila Petrovicha
    Maksim Nayrabe
    • brat Lenki Chistyakovoy
    • (as Maxim Nairabe)
    • Director
      • Vasili Pichul
    • Writers
      • Mariya Khmelik
      • Igor Shaferan
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews18

    6.92.2K
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    10

    Featured reviews

    8kittinjc

    A shocking film painted in shades of decay and rust

    Little Vera is the story of a Russian teenager, her family, and her attempts to find meaning and value in a life sliding increasingly into decay. In her search for meaning, she falls in love with a more intellectual and rebellious Sergei, whose hatred for her deeply flawed parents quickly spirals out of control.

    Little Vera is shocking and disturbing in nearly every way. The drinking of the father, the enabling and lack of understanding of the mother, the casual lies and misdirection of the brother, and Vera herself forgiving them all their flaws are all shocking and slightly disturbing to watch. However, the raw honesty of the film somehow manages to become even more shocking than the plot or characters. Set in cramped spaces and vast urban decay, Little Vera presented a vastly different view of Soviet life than had ever been seen before. In fact, Little Vera is a portrait of the collapse of Soviet society painted in shades of pain, desperation, and rust. It is the implosion of a family set against the implosion of an entire social order.

    Although painful and desperately unsatisfying, the film itself is definitely worth seeing, if only to understand the feelings and cultures still reshaping Russia today.
    7claudio_carvalho

    Deep Family Drama

    In Russia, the ordinary teenager Vera (Natalya Negoda) lives a leisured life with her drunkard father and her simpleton mother, without working and waiting for the calling for a technical course of telephone operator. Her brother Victor (Aleksandr Negreba) lives in Moscow with the family of his own and occasionally visits his dysfunctional family and Vera, being always motive for arguing. When Vera meets the student of university Sergei (Andrei Sokolov), they fall in love for each other and decide to get married. Sergei moves to Vera's house, but lives in conflict with her father. This relationship leads the family to a tragedy.

    I have just seen "Malenkaya Vera", and I liked a lot this deep family drama. I am not familiarized with the life style in the former URSS, but there are some unusual behaviors that I found very interesting. The first one, when Victor tells Vera that she was conceived not because her parents wanted to have her, but because they wanted to move to a larger apartment. Another one, when the family goes to the beach in a truck. Many difficulties of Vera's family and their friends, the repression in the park and other situations pictured in the movie are common in Third World countries. This low budget movie is very well-directed, and the story is very profound and real. The cast has great performances and the actress Natalya Negoda is very beautiful. In the cover of the Brazilian VHS, released by Sagres distributor, there is information that Natalya Negoda was the centerfold of Playboy magazine. I am not sure how precise are the subtitles in Portuguese, since many long sentences spoken in Russian are limited to short translation in few words. My vote is seven.

    Title (Brazil): "A Pequena Vera" ("The Little Vera")
    6SnoopyStyle

    Fine for a grungy indie

    Vera is a rebellious daughter of dissatisfied proletariat parents. Her father Kolya is an alcoholic. They keep referring to her older brother Victor who is a success in Moscow. They don't like her lifestyle or her friends. She falls for Sergei and decides to marry. It raises the tension in the family. Sergei and and Kolya don't get along. Sergei starts living with the family but it doesn't go well in one violent drunken confrontation.

    The film looks pretty grainy and weak compared to most indies of that time. It was sold as the first sex scene in Soviet cinema but there is nothing erotic about this movie. It is gritty, and dirty. The overbearing poverty is the backdrop. That is the more compelling aspect. The story of a rebellious daughter and family dysfunction is not necessarily original. It is somewhat new to see it portrayed about Russia at that time. The movie is filled with a downtrodden sadness and that goes for the lead actress Natalya Negoda. It's fine as a grungy indie and notable for being a Soviet film.
    9pelotard

    The Real Deal

    Forget every spy movie you've ever seen - this is what life was like in the USSR, and still is in many places in Russia and the ex-Soviet countries. Vera dreams of life of leisure, as she imagines the West to be; her reality is very different, with a bitter mother, a violent father, and the ever-present alcohol. And her prospects for the future are not much better. She finds a man and they try to patch up a life together, but he is afflicted by the same environment, both socially and physically - the scenery in this movie is brilliant, sitting comfortably in the company of post-apocalyptic movies but obviously done with no special effects; they have just walked in and shot whatever happened to be in front of the camera.

    Forget your stereotyped, cold Russians of spy movies. This is the Real Deal: people are passionate, vibrant, and present in a way you'll never see in a drama from the West.
    khubbard-1

    A Closed, Cramped World

    Please Note: This review mentions key moments in this film. Do not read if you have not seen the movie!

    Vera, the protagonist in the film Little Vera, lives in a closed, cramped world. She is trying to escape, both emotionally and physically, but in the end is no closer to freedom. Most of the reviews I read brought up the recurrent theme of limited space in this movie. The family apartment represents Vera's closed world in the simplest sense. She has no room to move, no room to grow and no room to find herself. Everywhere she turns the finds herself face to face with her mother, father, brother or simply a wall.

    However, the family apartment is only one way that the director maintains this constant feeling of confinement. Throughout the film, Vera is rarely shown at a distance. She is always in a small room, or sitting directly next to someone else, or being physically smothered by those around her (Andrei, Sergei, etc.). She is almost always in physical contact with another person. During the rare times that she truly is alone, such as when she is attempting suicide, the camera only zooms in closer. In this way, the lens replaces the walls and smothering humanity, itself becoming an object of confinement.

    If visual effects of confinement aren't possible, then sound is used to heighten the sense of disparity. Most of the dialogue in Little Vera, with the exception of less intense moments when the music volume is increased, is shouted, yelled or screamed. Vera's family is constantly in conflict and even the most civil dinner eventually erupts into argument. I found the constant barrage of sound equally as suffocating as the repeated scenes within the tiny apartment, and twice as hard on the nerves. Unlike Vera, however, we could leave when it was all over.

    It is hard not to feel sorry for Vera at the end of the movie, but is our sympathy justified? She returns, time and again, to the very apartment and situation that is slowly taking the life out of her. Can she really be considered a victim if she is bringing a lot of her misery upon herself?

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This was the first Soviet film to depict graphic sexual intercourse on screen.
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: See You in the Morning/Disorganized Crime/Speed Zone/Checking Out/Little Vera (1989)
    • Soundtracks
      Heaven And Hell
      (uncredited)

      Written by Dieter Bohlen

      Performed by C.C. Catch

      Produced by Dieter Bohlen

      [plays during playback of the video clip of the same name C. C. Catch]

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    FAQ17

    • How long is Little Vera?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 7, 1989 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • Soviet Union
    • Language
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • Little Vera
    • Filming locations
      • Zhdanov, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Mariupol, Ukraine]
    • Production company
      • Kinostudiya imeni M. Gorkogo
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,262,598
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $23,950
      • Apr 16, 1989
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,262,598
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 8m(128 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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