The plot blurb on this page gets it wrong: During the Cold War, a local Polish officer and a young Soviet woman wedded to a Soviet officer are drawn together by music. The asymmetry between their countries' position and power are important to the plot, so I don't consider this mix-up trivial. Their affair attracts the attention of the military authorities precisely because of her military connections. Restrictions on the movements of Poles around the Soviet forces forces the couple to maneuver a fair bit to prosecute their affair. Indeed, one subterfuge to circumvent those restrictions lands the officer in trouble that seems disproportional to mere adultery. Although his commanding officers appear to have a modicum of sympathy for him, there is not much they can do in th face of the Soviets. The film is very well done for a melodrama but doesn't rise above the genre.
10 Reviews
Military Romance
Galicius22 February 2012
It's an interesting film with a romance between a minor Polish military officer and a wife of a Russian officer stationed in a huge military base in Poland's Lower Silesia. A daughter is born out of the romance and the mother dies. We only find out in the end how it all happened when she, the daughter, and the widower visit the grave of the dead woman in Poland again after some twenty years. The same Russian actress who plays the mother plays the daughter role. More than half of the film is in Russian. There is fine music included of Ewa Demarczyk sung by the actress perhaps. It's in Polish with an accent with some Russian lyrics added. (We saw Demarczyk sing these songs at the Town Hall, NYC, winter 1987.)
Feelings and duties get mixed
inioi28 November 2015
Although the action of the film takes place in times of war, the film has a very clear romantic "touch" , thanks to photography, music and locations, in contrast to the relentless and ruthless attitude of the Russian military.
Hit the fact that Michal not seem to be aware of the risk to which both are exposed, while Wiera does, so a tension is created due to this contrary behaviour.
Story is told through two timelines, which makes the movie more realistic.
I did not expect the ending, and was ........ surprising.
8/10
Hit the fact that Michal not seem to be aware of the risk to which both are exposed, while Wiera does, so a tension is created due to this contrary behaviour.
Story is told through two timelines, which makes the movie more realistic.
I did not expect the ending, and was ........ surprising.
8/10
"The army sent you to Poland, but that doesn't mean that you are in Poland!"
ulefk18 April 2009
1967, Legnica (headquarters of the Soviet forces stationed in Poland from 1945 until 1990). The city, with the largest Russian army, is a Soviet enclave closed to outsiders, including Polish citizens, during this time. Yuri (Dmitry Ulyanov) is a young Russian pilot and failed astronaut posted to Legnica with his even younger wife Vera (Svetlana khodchenkova). Vera learns Polish and becomes fascinated with Polish music and poetry. At the Polish-Soviet "friendship song contest" she meets Polish officer and musician Michał (Lesław Żurek). The story inexorably leads to tragedy as Vera desperately tries to stop herself from falling in love with Michał, equally desperately tries to hide her infatuation when this fails. For starters I need to say that when I start watching Mała Moskwa I was not expecting the emotional ride that was ahead of me. As foreigner living in Poland for more than half decade I can say that only now I start to be aware of the background and story on this country, and It's obvious us that the II world war left scars that even time will not heal. When the great Wajda picked up the theme of "Katyn" I was anxious to see this emotional twirl of muffled hurtful feelings come on screen, but I was disappointed by how the excess of a big production made it look just an expensive visual document of an historical event, but washed of any human emotion, distant and cold. Now on the hands of Waldemar Krzystek, we have again the Russian occupation theme, but in such a deep poetic human way that your reaction watching it it's just speechless. Tears fall inside and outside as Krzystek leads you into an emotional reconstitution of what this times where. Trough is remarkable direction the "unreal" and poetic performances come so close to your heart and brain. Like a drug that Hypnotizes you, is the best way for me to describe the images that Krzystek produces. Mała Moskwa is for sure a high standard piece of cinema which for me it belongs only to master pieces and this is without doubts one of them. A special word for the stunning performances for all cast but specially for the unique Svetlana khodchenkova, which the word brilliant is not enough to define.
A Russian woman open legs for polish dude suddenly.
afterdarkpak3 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Kinda high budget for polish cinema , some decent performance and one hot Russian woman. There is no love triangle, it's just a forbidden love or infidelity.
One thing is stupid, very stupid. The affair starts soo suddenly and instantly that doesn't make any sense. There is no connection or feeling, and they just start an affair?
One thing is stupid, very stupid. The affair starts soo suddenly and instantly that doesn't make any sense. There is no connection or feeling, and they just start an affair?
lesser known Polish director Waldemar Krzystek takes up a touchy subject
alexdeleonfilm19 September 2016
Viewed at the 2010 Polish film festival of Los Angeles. A very interesting picture here was Waldemar Krzystek's latest offering, "Little Moscow" ( Mała Moskwa) which takes up the still touchy subject of the stationing of Russian troops on Polish soil during the Cold War years, which amounted almost to a military occupation. The Little Moscow in question was a large Russian garrison near the city of Legnica which was totally off limits to the local Poles, therefore they called it "Mala Moskwa". Numerous scenes demonstrate the disdain the Russians had for their Polish "allies" and the hatred the Poles had for the Russians, knowing that they were covering up atrocities like the massacre of 18,000 Polish POWs in the Katryn forest by the KGB during WWII, and generally regarding Poland as an inferior puppet state. The focus of the story however, based in part on memories of stories told to the director during his youth, is the illicit love affair between the pregnant wife of a diffident long suffering Russian officer and a gallant handsome young Polish cadet. In a flash forward, after the fall of Communism, the now grey haired Russian returns with his grown up daughter some twenty years later to visit the grave of the mother she never knew. At the very end the aging Pole also makes a shadowy entrance and we suspect that he may actually have been her father.
This is a very carefully woven psychological study of four intertwined lives, and actor Leslaw Żurek, now just thirty, who played the Polish officer is one of the leading stars of the new generation of Polish actors. Mr. Żurek appeared in two other films shown here and was present at all screenings to field questions after each -- in fairly good if somewhat halting English! He is definitely an actor for Polish Film buffs to keep an eye on. Director Krzystek lives and works in Wrocław far from the major film scene in Warsaw. He makes few films but all are sharply observed and cleanly directed.. One of his best in the psychological study of a psychotic university professor entitled "Polska Smierc" or Death Polish Stye.
This is a very carefully woven psychological study of four intertwined lives, and actor Leslaw Żurek, now just thirty, who played the Polish officer is one of the leading stars of the new generation of Polish actors. Mr. Żurek appeared in two other films shown here and was present at all screenings to field questions after each -- in fairly good if somewhat halting English! He is definitely an actor for Polish Film buffs to keep an eye on. Director Krzystek lives and works in Wrocław far from the major film scene in Warsaw. He makes few films but all are sharply observed and cleanly directed.. One of his best in the psychological study of a psychotic university professor entitled "Polska Smierc" or Death Polish Stye.
An insightful look into the systematic violence
moi_kamiar1 April 2009
Warning: Spoilers
A chronicle of a tragic love, Waldemar Krzystek's LITTLE MOSCOW (2008) is a big wonder coming from fantastic Polish cinema. In late sixties, an infertile Russian commander, Yura, along with his beautiful wife, Vera, enter Legnica, a little Moscow in Poland. There Vera falls for Michal, a seductive Polish officer and musical expert. When Vera finds out she's pregnant, their love reveals a disaster. Subtle narrative structure, full of flashbacks in the course of conversation of old Yura and Vera's daughter, graceful imagery and inspiring music pave the way for an insightful look into the systematic violence imposed on a spirited nation; a nation faithful to its beliefs, its loves and its way of living under the pressure of collectivism. A big, big yes to LITTLE MOSCOW!
a good romance drama
cosmin74200021 December 2018
A movie about thetraditional hate between polish and russians, but also a movie about blind love.A movie like americans never been capable to make.A movie with many political exagerations but a lesson of playing , telling the story , and direction.
testimony, seed, all in delicate love story skin
Vincentiu11 April 2012
poetic, gentle, delicate, profound, sad, sea of nuances. axis - a love story in cage of Cold War. memories of a Russian officer and questions of his daughter. silhouette of wife. bricks of a cruel political system. and a tale about feelings, basic gestures and dimension of fear. about power of courage and sacrifice as only key of normal things. it is not good movie. just perfect to discover roots of old similar stories. instrument - special beauty of actors, Polish and Russian language, few crumbs of romanticism and picture on a grave. a cross on the grave of a child and cried of a man at Gagarin death. not very much. but more than a film, it is a seed. and a testimony. remember of a time - a long and painful 1968. and occasion to meet, again, map of Poland soul. a woumb, impossibility to forgive, need to present old scares for understand, accept and learn about essence of a nation
to remember
Kirpianuscus18 August 2017
a love story. special for the delicate / wise/precise manner to show it. for the inspired trip between past and present, for the convincing portrait of a dramatic episode of Polish recent history .and for the admirable performances. a film as splendid exam of emotions, politic pressure and a dramatic live story, against rules, interdiction and clash between two cultures. în this case, the love story is more than a touching ingredient but the tool for define the essence of a period in precise manner .
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