Vasily Shukshin’s Diploma of Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography is part of the museum’s collection. It was received in 1960.
The future director passed his graduation exams in February 1959, but only in the summer of 1960 he began the production of his thesis, the short film A Report From Lebyazhye. Filming took place at Mosfilm studio. Mikhail Romm was the artistic director of the picture.
The plot of the film tells about an ordinary day of the rural District Party Committee during a hot summer period. The picture opens with a scene in the reception room of Baikalov, the District Party Committee First Secretary. Each of the visitors has his own request to the official. A young woman, an eye-catching dyed blonde Naumova, complained about her husband who started an affair. Gloomy and clumsy Evgeny Ivanovich came to discuss the illegally accrued alimony. Another hero is a young rural mechanic Senya Gromov who came to ask for crankshafts with a cap in his hand.
There are many problems around: machinery shortage, insufficient spare parts for harvesters, and an employee, the instructor at the Committee, has a personal trouble: his wife left. This good man suffered, but did not give up, did not ask for sympathy, but drove the pain inside and went to Lebyazhye, where his presence was necessary. The film ends with a newspaper article: it was reported from Lebyazhy that harvesting went smoothly and at a high pace.
Shukshin wrote the script for his debut film himself, directed it and played the protagonist Peter Ivlev, who worked as an instructor at the District Party Committee according to the plot. Actor Leonid Kuravlyov starred as machine operator Semyon Gromov.
A Report From Lebyazhye received the highest score from the commission. Eventually, Kuravlyov recalled his first experience of working with Shukshin and said, “People who love Vasily Makarovich could see and understand the origins of his creative path. It was a seed planted into the cinematic field, from which strong sprouts would then shoot into the sky: Shukshin the writer, Shukshin the director, and Shukshin the actor, since he was a screenwriter, director, and actor”.
The future director passed his graduation exams in February 1959, but only in the summer of 1960 he began the production of his thesis, the short film A Report From Lebyazhye. Filming took place at Mosfilm studio. Mikhail Romm was the artistic director of the picture.
The plot of the film tells about an ordinary day of the rural District Party Committee during a hot summer period. The picture opens with a scene in the reception room of Baikalov, the District Party Committee First Secretary. Each of the visitors has his own request to the official. A young woman, an eye-catching dyed blonde Naumova, complained about her husband who started an affair. Gloomy and clumsy Evgeny Ivanovich came to discuss the illegally accrued alimony. Another hero is a young rural mechanic Senya Gromov who came to ask for crankshafts with a cap in his hand.
There are many problems around: machinery shortage, insufficient spare parts for harvesters, and an employee, the instructor at the Committee, has a personal trouble: his wife left. This good man suffered, but did not give up, did not ask for sympathy, but drove the pain inside and went to Lebyazhye, where his presence was necessary. The film ends with a newspaper article: it was reported from Lebyazhy that harvesting went smoothly and at a high pace.
Shukshin wrote the script for his debut film himself, directed it and played the protagonist Peter Ivlev, who worked as an instructor at the District Party Committee according to the plot. Actor Leonid Kuravlyov starred as machine operator Semyon Gromov.
A Report From Lebyazhye received the highest score from the commission. Eventually, Kuravlyov recalled his first experience of working with Shukshin and said, “People who love Vasily Makarovich could see and understand the origins of his creative path. It was a seed planted into the cinematic field, from which strong sprouts would then shoot into the sky: Shukshin the writer, Shukshin the director, and Shukshin the actor, since he was a screenwriter, director, and actor”.
