Wings (1966 film)

Plot

Forty-one-year-old Nadezhda Petrukhina (Maya Bulgakova), a once heroic World War II Soviet fighter pilot, is now living a quiet, but disappointingly ordinary life as a school principal at a construction-oriented trade school. Beloved and revered by the generation that experienced the Great Patriotic War, Nadezdha struggles to connect with the generation that followed hers. Nadezhda disapproves of her adopted daughter's choices in men, and worries that her daughter, Tanya (Zhanna Bolotova), unaware of her own adoption, might discover the truth.

Conversations between the two emphasize their tense, understated and ambiguous relationship. When Tanya encourages her mother to quit her job as school principal and begin a new life with a husband, Nadezhda responds with a cold lecture on the importance of self-sacrifice and duty to the state, values she had when she had served in the military. At the school where she works, however, Nadezhda is confronted by children who can neither appreciate the sacrifices she made during the war, nor the sacrifices she makes for them now.

Nadezdha's brief, tantalizing memories of flight, in her Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter aircraft, tumbling through clouds, are interspersed with reality and the moments of dull monotony, such as her daily commute on the bus. After a visit to a local museum, where Nadezhda sees a photograph of Mitya (Leonid Dyachkov), her former lover during World War II, brings back memories of his final flight. Nadezdha had flown alongside Mitya but was horrified to realize he was dead at his controls and she was unable to intercede. Mitya's photograph, and the subsequent memory of his death in the conflict, leads Nadezhda to the local airfield.

Circumstances arise to give Nadezhda a chance at sitting in one of the airfield's Yakovlev Yak-18 PM trainers. The flying instructor who recognized her persuades her to climb aboard the single-seat aircraft. Seated in the cockpit, Nadezhda's face adopts a curious expression as she examines the instrument panel of the aircraft. The flying instructor and his students push her aircraft back to the hangar, but they are essentially mocking her, claiming that they are letting her fly the aircraft.

As the aircraft is about to pushed into the hangar, Nadezhda starts the engine, swings around and taxies out to the runway, with the astonished instructor and students running after her. Lifting off, the former pilot takes wing once again.

Cast

Production

Integration of wartime Messerschmitt Bf 109 combat footage with live-action footage of Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter aircraft were used in a dream sequence.

Release

Wings was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in 2008 through its Eclipse series as part of a box set together with The Ascent.

Reception

Film critic Paul Schrader , as well as director Ben Wheatley, chose Wings as one of their top 10 favorite Criterion releases. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has called it a "lovely and nuanced character study," an analysis repeated by critic Michael Koresky's description of the film as a "penetrating character study."

Critic David Sterritt wrote that it is "a remarkable movie, especially for a directorial debut," while another critic, Dave Kehr, wrote that Shepitko learned from Alexander Dovzhenko how "to bend documentary style realism to more subjective, poetic ends". Similarly, Senses of Cinema praised the film's "rich layers of meaning,"

DVD Verdict wrote that the "most astonishing thing about Wings is how young Shepitko was when she directed it. It feels like the work of an older director, one who would understand what it's like to live in the shadow of your younger self" and that much of the film's "success leans on the performance of Bulgakova, and she does deliver a phenomenal performance. On a whole, the film doesn't stand out in terms of its storytelling or cinematography, but as a sensitive human portrait, it truly is remarkable," and critic Dennis Schwartz called it a "brilliantly conceived work of art." In Sight & Sound's 2012 surveys of the greatest films ever made, two critics (Sergio Grmek Germani and Erica Gregor) and two directors (Carol Morley and Vlado Škafar) voted for Wings.