The July premiere of Kira Muratova's film was a major event in Ukraine. It is, after all, a Ukrainian film, even though it stars Russian actors, including Oleg Tabakov and Renata Litvinova. When their mother dies, Alena and Nikita, who have different fathers, do not want to go to separate orphanages and run away from home to look for their fathers.. They do this on Christmas Eve, and the film becomes a Yuletide fairy tale of two children who cling to one another as not to lose their closest companion. Muratova on his film: "A very simple, sentimental tale, sad, with a tragic ending. Hunger, cold, the feeling of being an orphan, poverty, wealth - the nature of all of these disparate things is revealed. The screenplay is free of psychological or formal complexity. The blend of tenderness and sadness might be called melodramatic. But just as in any good melodrama, it has a social underpinning." Muratova is known to be both tender and harsh. The Nativity story is recast in the present day. As these two nice, intelligent, defenceless children make their journey, we meet a colourful array of recognizable contemporaries: thieves, wheelers and dealers, alcoholics, religious freaks, youth gangs, gamblers and players, crooks, unsympathetic bureaucrats, insensitive sellers, twins, the blind tapping with canes, stray dogs. The children lead us and structure the composition of the film, almost as if the viewer is guiding the children while sensing imminent danger. Toward the end of the film, the tune of "Razluka" makes an appearance - why should we part ways, why should be live apart from one another? These two children, two human entities, belong together. Jaan Ruus