Dusha

Dusha
Original film poster
Directed by	Alexander Stefanovich
Produced by	Alexander Stefanovich
Written by	Alexander Borodyansky Alexander Stefanovich
Starring	Sofia Rotaru Mikhail Boyarsky
Music by	Alexander Kutikov Andrei Makarevich
Distributed by	Mosfilm
Release date(s)	January 1, 1981
Running time	93 min.
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Dusha (Russian: Душа, English translation: Soul) is a 1981 Soviet musical drama film written by Alexander Borodyansky and directed by Alexander Stefanovich, starring Sofia Rotaru and Mikhail Boyarsky. The movie features songs songs performed by Sofia Rotaru, Mikhail Boyarsky and the Russian rock band Mashina Vremeni. The movie has substantial philosophical dialogue about the self-criticism of an artist and the existential approach to the golden mean between artistic creation and respect for human dignity.

The movie featured a music video with Sofia Rotaru and Mikhail Boyarsky jumping on a trampoline in gold stretch fabric. The film was watched by 33 million cinema-goers in the Soviet Union.^[1]

During production of the film, Rotaru's son was threatened to be taken hostage and was hidden in a villa in the Crimea.^[2] The scenario and the role of Viktoria Slobodina were especially written for Rotaru. The main plot in the movie deals with the singer's health problems (inflammation of the vocal cords), and Rotaru had similar health issues.

The story is set by the sea at Rotaru's house in Yalta and in Germany (where Rotaru at that time recorded many of her albums), as well as at international song festivals, where Rotaru participated as well. Producer/director Stefanovich invited Rotaru when other Russian singer Alla Pugacheva becvame unavailable.^[3]

The heroine, Viktoria Svobodina (played by Rotaru), learns before an international song festival that due to an illness she may lose her voice. An acquaintance helps her to avoid this situation. She decides to start singing in a new style, and once on the festival's stage she wins grand prize. The film contributed to press rumours regarding the loss of Rotaru's voice. Rotaru did in fact suffer from an inflammation of the vocal chords, though this was never confirmed by a medical diagnosis.^[4]

Plot

Original title in Russian.

Viktoria Svobodina is a young but already well known popular singer in the Soviet Union, living in Moscow. Her popularity reaches the heights whilst the band she is performing with remains in the shadows. At an important live concert the band turns off the sound, but Viktoria keeps singing the song, changing the lyrics into "I will sing till the end". As they are returning from the concert she stops the car and tears off the posters of herself on the walls of the concert hall and leaves the band. So does her beloved Igor, living her for an independent career of his own, eventually ending up playing piano in a small café.

As her career grows, her producer arranges new concert performances for her. However, something starts going wrong with the voice of the singer. After a thorough medical examination, the doctor forbids her to sing for at least three months or else she would lose her voice completely. She decides to make a break and informs her producer, as she receives an invitation to sing at an important state concert. She concedes to requests and performs in the Kremlin, as she was not informed that the concert will be aired live on major Soviet television channels. She also receives a telephone call from an old school friend who invites her to the recording of the new song in duet in Saint Petersburg. After the recording Viktoria meets with her old friend again and learns that he is playing in a rock band. She visits their rock concerts incognito and considers this new music style. Her producer learns that she is in fact singing, whereas he persuaded all the other clients to postpone their requests for her to perform.

Viktoria finally decides to take a break and leaves for a summer resort on the sea shore. The name of the movie comes from the dialog which takes place in the middle of the movie between Viktoria and an older stranger at this isolated vacation resort, during a sea stroll on a pier. Viktoria confesses her fears of losing her voice and the stranger comforts her saying that the songs of a singer live as long as the soul of the singer remains alive. This is when Viktoria asks: "Soul? But where is this soul?". Her producer finally finds her here, even though she was hiding anonymously. An important international song competition is going to take place in Germany and she was selected to represent the country.

Viktoria had no choice and left the resort immediately with the producer. To go to the competition she needed however a new band, and the producer found her an unknown one, playing on the outskirts of Moscow rock band (role played by Time Machine). Viktoria meets for the first time the band and recognizes the main player - her old school friend, although they do not make a sign of it in front of the producer. The first meeting with the whole group was not successful as they wanted to keep their music style and saw Svetlana's proposal of collaboration as a mere circumstantial choice of the top Soviet artist. Nevertheless, rehearsals begin, and at his point in the film we see the music video featuring Rotaru, Boyarsky and Mashina Vremeni, all dressed in futuristic costumes made of tight shiny stretchy fabric, jumping on the trampoline.

Alexander Stefanovich, "Mosfilm" producer, (1976—1980):

Viktoria leaves with the new band for Germany for the international song festival Intermusik. During the days preceding her appearance, she falls in love with her old friend, and separates from her producer, who saw in her a mere glory machine. During a travel in the North Sea on a yacht she breaks down with a sharpening of her illness. The German doctor present on board detects the true reason - her ill voice and lungs, and advises her to stop singing immediately. Viktoria asks him to be silent and appears on the stage during the competition, where she wins. The last scene of the movie is ambiguous, as according to one interpretation she loses her voice completely after, and according to another - the final accord is the victory at the competition.

Cast

• Sofia Rotaru as the famous singer Viktoria Svobodina. The root of Svobodina is svoboda (Russian: свобода)–"freedom".
• Rolan Bykov as Svetlana's manager Albert Leonidovich.
• Mikhail Boyarsky as Vadim Starych, soloist of the band Mashina Vremeni.
• Vyacheslav Spesivtsev as Sergey, boyfriend of Viktoria Svobodina in her first band.
• Ivars Kalniņš as the translator and friend of Viktoria while in Germany.
• Leonid Obolensky as an old man who meets Viktoria at the secluded sea resort and gives her insight into artistic creation.
• Mashina Vremeni fearures its real life members: Valerii Efremov, Alexander Kutikov, Andrei Makarevich, Piotr Podgorodetsky, and Ovanes Melik-Pashaev.

Production

At the same time, the movie played a bad joke with the actors. As the whole country was singing "Ya pyu do dna" (I drink to the dregs), Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article with the Russian title translating into "False Soul". As a result, "Mashina Vremeni" was not allowed to sing during five years on the stages in Moscow. As for Sofia Rotaru, rumors that the singer had completely lost her voice became even stronger.

Sofia Rotaru sings in the movie herself, however all the speech is recorded by a different voice. In fact, another actress had recorded her voice for dialogs, because of Rotaru's Moldavian accent. In contrast to the role she played in the movie, Sofia Rotaru did not have to leave the stage. Her voice, slightly damaged by one timbre during the operation, fully came back.

• Writers: Alexander Borodyansky, Alexander Stefanovich
• Director: Alexander Stefanovich
• Producer: Alexander Stefanovich
• Cameraman-producer: Vladimir Klimov
• Painter-producer: Alina Speshneva
• Music: Aleksandr Zatsepin
• Sound operator: V. Babushkin, V. Ladyguina
• Producers: V. Kovaleva, M. Maksimchyuk
• Cameramen: V. Kromas, A. Naydyonov
• Costumes: V. Ptitsin
• Cutter: E. Tobak
• Make-up: M. Agafonova
• Trick photography: Cameraman: A. Dvigubsky, Painter: P. Khurumov
• Editor: E. Ermolin
• Music editor: A. Belyaev
• Film director: Gueorgy Pastushkov

Soundtrack

Songs were composed by Soviet authors such as Robert Rozhdestvensky and Igor Kokhanovksy, composers such as Aleksandr Zatsepin, and members of Mashina Vremeni: Andrei Makarevich and Alexander Kutikov.^[6] The part of the movie filmed in Germany also features the works of Antonio Vivaldi in the background.

References

External links

• 'Dusha' at the Internet Movie Database
• 'Dusha' at Allmovie
• Filmography of Sofia Rotaru
• Dusha at kinox.ru
• kino-teatr.ru
• History of Dusha