User Reviews

The title "Lyana" comes from the heroine, full Russian name Ilyana, a brunette singer from a youth music group in an ethnic collective in Moldavia, one of the former Soviet republics. The film has one of the loveliest opening scenes in any works I've seen by its director, Boris Barnet: the camera tracks a young man, dressed up and carrying a briefcase, as he moves outdoors into a landscape of sheep and terraced fields; he blows on his trumpet, kids run to join him, start to dance, then other musicians follow. He is Alexei (Alesha) one of a likable trio of instrumentalists who are on their way to a competition at the Moldavian National Theater. We next meet Andrei, who is in a home with his girlfriend, Lyana of the title, and an older man we learn is her grandfather. Several vehicles take off with the troupe. Their commune, called New Life, performs three numbers, in their colorful costumes, in the next scene in the concert hall:A folk song sung by Lyana with Andrei on the violin; a folk dance; and a third number, added with some disagreement. A panel of 8 judges takes notes on their performance and awards them diplomas. As the trio of three young men (Grigori or Grisha is the third) go back to the country, an entrepreneur coaxes them into playing for money at three weddings which are along the way, and they reluctantly agree. At one of these weddings there are intercut shots of women working in the nearby vineyards against the wind. The trio hide when their collective supervisor, Stepan, turns up, as they don't want him to see what they're doing,and they land up sleeping in the fields, where a plane comes by in the morning to spray the crops and awakens them.The three boys are reprimanded for their misbehavior and are next seen holed up studying for their duties on the farm, in agronomy. Meanwhile we see Lyana rehearsing to go to the next stage of musical competition, in Moscow, with other performers replacing the three boys, in a hall which the trio then enter. Another girl, Lyana's friend Paraschiva, flirts with the trumpeter Alexei, and they dance together in the road. She connives, with the help of the other two boys, to get Lyana and Andrei, who are bickering, back together, but Andrei resents the matchmaking. There is an interesting scene where the members of the collective watch a newsreel one evening showing the appearance we saw of them at the National Theater. But a section of the vineyard that the three boys were responsible for doesn't turn out well, they hadn't tied the vines properly, and they are chastised by Stepan. No hope for them now to go to Moscow. The entrepreneur who they had linked up with earlier returns, he has fallen on hard times and the trio eat grapes with him in the fields. We then see the train headed for Moscow, the crowds outdoors at the International Youth Festival, and fireworks. The grapes are harvested back home. Lyana and Andrei both apply to leave the New Life commune, so they can be apart from each other,but wouldn't you know they land up back together, in a sappy ending. From this description you'll realize that "Lyana" has a rather banal story of young lovers, The movie is at its best when it focuses on the trio of ethnic musicians, and the early scenes of the group showing their talents reminded me a bit of the ethnic music that has graced so many of the films of Kusturica.