The intended empathy is challenging for me because it's one of those mid-life-crisis, "I can't connect with the younger generation" kind of character studies. Dovzhenko's work came to mind as I watched it, and lo and behold, the director was a disciple of his for a time. I wound up having the same opinion of this as I did of Earth: the dry, grounded realistic moments are boring while the sporadic moments of poetic imagery and sound are astounding. I wished for more of the latter.

Awesome direction by Shepitko. There are some unforgettable scenes in this movie that was revived out of obscurity. Thank you Criterion Collection!

A fighter pilot heroine finds herself increasingly isolated and out-of-touch with the people around her. There are some moments of true poetry and I thought the ending was perfect... but I also have to admit I was a bit bored some of the time.

A quiet sincerity.