Whistle Stop

Director: Boris Barnet

1963 / 71min / Digital

Shot in an Abkhazian town along the Black Sea coast, Barnet’s bittersweet final film concerns Pavel Pavlovich (Vasili Merkuryev), an aging scientist who retreats to the remote countryside for a convalescent vacation in the hopes of reawakening his youthful passion for painting, only to be pulled into the various petty trials and troubles of the townspeople. Dismissed by critics and ignored by audiences upon its initial release, but now embraced by Barnet scholars as a covert self-portrait from the artist in his twilight, Whistle Stop is one of the greatest swan songs of studio-era cinema.

Introduction by programmer Edo Cho on Sunday, April 12th

Part of Boris Barnet A Soviet Poet