Late Meeting

The film takes place in Leningrad and Sverdlovsk, in 1970 and 1979. Arriving on a business trip from Sverdlovsk in the Lenfilm, engineer catapults Sergei Gushchin meets a young actress Natasha. She invites him to show Leningrad, but Gushchin and he knows the city - he served here during the war. They are looking for an excuse for further meetings, but he always finds a reason to not to meet with the woman who is many years younger than him and with whom he has fallen in love with. Natasha understands too that she loves this man, but Gushchin leaves, and not daring to associate with her fate. In the end he leaves and only returns to Leningrad nine years later and then he tries to find Natasha again.

Directed by Vladimir Shredel, Late Meeting leans on a strong ensemble — Aleksey Batalov, Margarita Volodina, Larisa Luppian — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about romance titles of 1979.