Spring on Zarechnaya Street

Spring on Zarechnaya Street (1956) is a Soviet melodrama to watch online on iFILM, directed by Felix Mironer and Marlen Khutsiev. Shot on location in Zaporizhzhia, the film follows a young literature teacher who arrives to run evening classes at a workers' school — and walks straight into the orbit of the factory's star steelworker.

Sasha (Nikolai Rybnikov) is used to getting what he wants. Tatyana (Nina Ivanova) is not impressed. He tries bravado, then indifference, then something he has no name for — actual feeling, which completely wrong-foots him. By the time the snow melts, he has lost all his confidence and gained something more durable.

The film drew huge audiences in its day and has kept them: not through speeches about love, but through two recognisable people who don't quite know how to talk to each other. Watch Spring on Zarechnaya Street online on iFILM.