Original subtitles

With the financial support of the Russian Federation Ministry of Culture

Let's go!

Lord, save us.

Sinners who have lost our way.

Save us.

Holy, kind Mother of God,

take into the shelter of your protection

the cursed Tonya.

And me, the sinner Natalia.

Nataliushka, are you here?

I'm here, here...

Is it really you, Natashka?

You look terrible. Your face is all black.

You're all pockmarked.

They're coming!

They're coming!

Hey, horse!

Horse!

Well?

What troubles you?

THE DRY VALLEY

Based upon a story of the same name by Ivan Bunin.

What can you see, Tonya?

I see butterflies.

Lots of butterflies.

I recall we had some quite acceptable Madeira somewhere.

You, it seems, have forgotten, sir. We did have an abundance of that Madeira.

But we serfs drank it all.

It was a noble wine but we mistook it for kvas.

What's going on? Get out of here!

This very second!

Excuse me.

A trivial matter.

He's our cousin on our father's side.

Say it louder: "We're now related to the serfs. "

Because of him there are lots of undesirables here now. What am I to do?

I can forgive everything.

I'm in love.

We're not all equal! - Shut up, old woman!

...and the silver shines,

a light blue wave.

A dark forest, mam, in the silence

of emerald branches.

The sparrow doesn't sing

its resonant songs.

I have to give away my sister in marriage.

Travel to St. Petersburg. Rent an apartment.

And you won't get away

with just some tailored clothes.

Why didn't anyone cut down that tree?

It looks as if it's just waiting to be hit by lightning.

If I borrow money...

the mansion is dilapidated as it is.

Please forgive me, Petr.

Tonya...

is sick with yearning.

She is a fragile creature. She should live in the countryside.

The salons of Petersburg

will do her no good at all.

Oh, Dry Valley is as good as it gets. Damn it all to hell...

Natalia!

Nataliushka, where are you?

Please, excuse me, my lord!

Where could it be other than in the bathhouse?

What was missing has been found.

So the girl has had her fun with the mirror.

So then, Natalia?

It turns out you're a thief?

Cut her hair!

Then take her away to the furthest settlement, Bodulya.

Oh, mama! No one will ever marry her now!

What?

What do you expect if you've got no shame?

Look.

You're disgraced.

Why, Gevraska, are you looking so fragile?

Maybe the lord of the manor will pardon her.

She'll live in the settlement for a year and then she'll be back.

What a disgrace.

Worst than death.

Bodulya...

I did love him...

Our Lord.

What are you feeling so sorry for yourself for, you idiot?

There are plenty of fish in the sea.

Bodulya!

People survive on the run, don't they? - Only they say...

that they burn out the eyes of such boys and girls

with boiling milk

and make them out to be damned.

It happens that the lord catches the runaways

and puts them in the stockade.

Running...

is even more frightening than hanging myself.

The shit in the pen isn't just from bulls.

I have no body.

Just a soul.

A sweet girl with a broken heart

doesn't want to love a kind man...

All because she's an orphan.

She never takes orders from anyone.

That's it.

And then, hello to you.

Come on in. Glad to see you be our guest.

We have goods to sell. Here, the drapery.

Maybe we could barter. Perhaps you have a piglet to sell.

We'd like that.

Do you have a needlewoman then?

To make a dress of that drapery? Yes we have!

She's barefoot! How is she barefoot? Like that...

Why are you not eating?

She's useful, Natalia.

Works hard.

Maybe she can be our child.

She never was and never will be.

Not of our blood.

Come on, come on!

Catch up your brothers.

You fat bird, go up there! Catch them up!

Go!

Go! Go! Go!

Off you fly!

She's barefoot! How is she barefoot? Like that!

And maybe you'll find someone who is handy like that?

Maybe a shoemaker or a sandal maker?

We said: Show us someone who can make sandals

because our girls are barefoot and there are lots of them.

So they bring in Grishka, the son in law

because he can weave sandals and stitch cloth galoshes.

Can we talk a little closer? Come closer to us.

Come closer and sit down.

Sit here beside us.

So, that's our goods. What's yours?

Lies? We say, no, that's not us. We'll find something now.

Wait, I'm saying, I have a piglet hidden away. Choose the pig.

Let's go and have a look.

So they go into the storeroom and to put it simply, they have a look...

It's best not to think about the roles.

Think, don't think, that's not our way.

The Lord God has so much of everything.

Pull us some onions, girl, as you go.

No words to describe these storm clouds.

This is no time to consider getting married.

Open up!

I didn't come here by myself.

God led me.

In heaven, there is no fear and no misfortune.

In other times, people suffered hugely for the sake of Christ.

They were burnt and their arms and legs

and even tongues were torn out. Do not encounter or touch evil!

Is she an idiot? - And they were fed to ferocious beasts.

Hello!

Holy martyr Ekaterina

pray to God for us.

And they put up with it all for Christ. And now what?

Nataliushka,

would you suffer for Christ?

Are you an orphan?

An orphan.

You and I are of the same family.

How?

We both look upon the same sun.

All kinds of people walk the earth

and yet the sky puts up with it.

Tell me, have you ever heard an angel's voice?

Someone who hears the choir of angels

from the grace of God, from rapture,

will die.

Pray for me.

Which God should I pray to for you?

The God of Cherubs or the earthenware god of heathens?

Pray to... all of them.

There aren't enough paths for all of them.

Gevraska!

Gevraska, what's wrong?

The lord got married. He brought his wife home, then left.

He's in service in the city.

Tonya is completely overcome with grief. The lady's in tears and beats the girls.

For three days.

And it's one and the same for me, yearning from one day to the next.

That officer abandoned her. Petr Petrovich's comrade.

He gave her flowers. A piano.

She's obsessed with God. The lady just sits there in the window.

Oh, a thread.

And so it turns out I'm also on the run. - Are you feeling alright?

I'm fine. I can just feel the cold between my wings.

Now bid me farewell for good.

Who was that wiping himself on your dress?

That was Gevraska from Dry Valley passing through.

Why just...

passing through?

On the run?

Well, his boots are very good.

Be safe!

Bodulya!

God bless you! - Well, good health to you!

Thank you for Natashka,

for looking after our orphan.

Well, girl, you've turned into a bride.

So you want to get married? - No. Not for anything in the world.

Where's the joy in that?

Not everyone has to get married.

They'll probably put me in Lady Tonya's service.

She's obsessed with God and she won't let me.

And I've been having very clear dreams, over and over.

What did you see in them?

Nothing much. They were empty.

Don't be offended my daughter

maybe I've said more than I should have.

Oh, listen to me my child

I will send you off to the strangers.

And my child you tell no one anything

and keep all your secrets secret in your soul...

Oh, listen my gentle child

what terrible dreams were dreamt by me.

I dreamt of steep mountains and dark forests...

Maybe there's no need. I'm happy.

Do you want a kind husband? Do you want healthy children?

If you do, cry, you stupid girl. Or happiness will never come to you.

Oh, you are flying away from me my sweet daughter

from my warm and cosy home...

Oh, my friends, my darling women!

Where are they sending me?

Oh, God my judge, provider and father.

Oh, God my judge, and Mother of all.

Oh, they never let me, a beautiful girl.

To stay at home as much as I like.

To walk free as much as I like.

Or wear a colourful dress.

Oh, fill my white face with colour.

Let me grow a ginger plait of hair.

Till the last bit of hair.

How did it come to pass that I, never made sense of my own mind?

Oh, my face is white

like a sheer of birch bark that has lain there for a year.

Oh, you see it all with your own eyes, Lord Father.

Lord and Mother...

Oh, what do I need all these strangers for who instead of a sharp knife

gave me a sharpened sword?

Oh, please look now, the Lord my father!

Oh, look now please, my dearest mother!

Oh, my hot tears are not pearls

and my white face is not made of paper.

Oh, bless me, my true born father.

Oh, bless me, my dearest mother.

Let me pass along the pathway

to a strange father, a strange mother.

Look how beautiful that is.

And you say you don't want to get married.

Let's go, Bodulya.

Who's that? That's Evseviy bringing back Natalia.

It really is Natalia. They passed by very quietly.

So tell us, how was life in the settlement?

Not the same as here anyway.

It was fine.

The Lord God

has many riches.

It's dull living in a village.

I'll go to Moscow.

It's fun living in Moscow

getting rid of the yearning.

Let my road reach out

in grass and glade.

Gentle grass and gentle glade

and burdock leaves.

Why I not, darling

walk along this road with you?

Why would I not, darling

walk along this road with you?

So, Natalia.

I designate that you serve the lady.

Help her in all matters.

My things are not to be touched.

Help me.

Oh you, little girl!

What's that for, lady?

Rotten girl.

The cruel woman...

This is going to be hard for me.

What did you see in your dream?

Nothing, it seems.

What did you see in your dream?

Nothing.

You could've lied about something.

What's the point? Since I was born, I wasn't much of a storyteller.

Stupid girl!

I'm tired.

Sing me something.

Do you...

have a preference for being... ill?

Me?

Would you...

marry me?

The wife of a district doctor?

I...

will inform your relatives about...

such a serious diagnosis.

But I must remind you:

it is of your own...

choosing.

She is weak in the head.

At your service.

Take your medicine, my lady.

Do you, Natalia, want to try and poison me?

No, I don't want to.

Then you take it.

Try it!

Tonechka!

How is work going for you, Nataliushka?

And so I'm also on the run from now on.

They burnt them with fire,

nailed them to wheels and fed them to ferocious beasts.

Good day!

Well?

Feeling any better?

They called you from a long way off.

Are you real?

You have a look at me, just as I am.

Your hand is kind.

Dawn.

There's a darkening.

It's time.

...and will open the windows and dissolve the doors

and will call out and proclaim:

Yearning!

Yearning!

Be gone, yearning, into the dark forests. That is where you should be!

In the seas and oceans, on the island of restlessness, there lies a shelled snake.

You, shelled snake, take back your daughters

those of the fields, and the earth, and the grasses

and suck the poison from the wounds.

From this white body, this arduous heart, this turbulent head, these dark brows,

these small hands and delicate feet, take back the poison and heal the wounds.

The dry tree is angered and your ash is scattered throughout the universe.

It is not I who speaks but God himself and the blessed Mother of God speaks now.

It is not I who speaks but God himself and the blessed Mother of God speaks now.

As a white feather falls away from the back of a white swan

so too will all pain, fever, illness and ailments fall away

from Our Lord's servant, Antonina.

From this pure body, arduous heart, this turbulent head, these dark brows,

these small hands and delicate feet...

From whence this illness came.

If from the forests, to the forests. If from the wind, to the wind. Amen!

It is not I who speaks but God himself and the blessed Mother of God speaks now.

It is not I who speaks but God himself and the blessed Mother of God speaks now.

Nataliushka! Are you here?

Thunder's coming. Can you hear it?

Near at hand.

Who are you?

A man.

There's the thunderstorm.

They killed 111 people just outside Pskov.

Here too.

And they burnt the white willow tree to dust...

A woman was hit by lightning in Cherkizov this year.

I'm not, lady, a soldier on the run, as you probably thought.

I'm returning home.

It's chilly. Allow me to stay the night.

Yes, it's a story summer and it's a hard journey.

Thunderstorms have come to us here in Dry Valley.

We have to put up with the fear.

I'm not afraid of thunderstorms and I'd advise you not to be.

But I do need some rest.

How could one not be afraid?

Your Dry Valley home is dark and gloomy.

But you, lady

are like a white bird.

The oven is smoking.

I've fallen in love with you, young girl.

I'll come to you.

And if you shout

I'll burn you to the ground.

Now where are you?

A Maundy Thursday for samovars.

Good work.

Like looking into calm water.

You're cleaning the samovar but don't try and climb up on our girls.

They're all spoken for here.

In the seas and oceans,

there lies a white fleeced creature... That's not it.

In the seas and oceans, on an island of...

You're a good one, Natalia.

And your time has come.

Don't be afraid, girl.

Who are you, the devil? - No, just a man.

Looks like you're pregnant?

The little sparrow's head was hurt.

The little sparrow's legs snapped.

The little sparrow started to fall

and the little sparrow got tired out

and the little sparrow started to fly badly in circles.

You're not a dog.

You're a bird.

Are you alone?

I enjoy my own company.

Is that you little bird?

I recognized you.

Hello.

Hello, Petr.

How are your affairs in the city?

There are lights there.

And beautiful people.

I am beautiful.

Why don't you take me with you?

How are your affairs in the city?

There are lights there.

I am beautiful.

Why don't you take me with you?

Why?

The crazy woman was here.

What did she say?

She called Tonya a bird.

People come in off the street

and start giving us bird names.

Who will you be then, Natalia?

I'm afraid of thunder.

I'm afraid of rain.

The rustling!

Lady, let me go into the woods to get berries.

I'll bring you back some feathers.

For your hair.

Go.

Our dear Lord, in whose hands have you left us?

How will we live now without you?

You're too late, girl.

It burnt down from lightning.

From a golden ball.

It leapt out from the oven,

struck the lord...

It burnt for ages.

Did you throw yourself?

I nearly died.

It wasn't yours.

It wasn't mine.

Your child is over there,

playing on the piano.

Mine...

Not mine.

Mine...

Not mine.

Mine...

Not mine.

There aren't any more blue ones.

English subs transcribed and synced by: vittifilm & marooned2, KG, 2014