Love and Pigeons

Vasily Kuzyakin (Alexander Mikhailov), an amateur pigeon breeder, lives in a small town with his wife Nadezhda and three children: Lyuda, who has returned from the city after parting with her husband, Lyonka, and Olya, her father's favorite. When Vasily is injured at work, he is given a ticket to a seaside resort. While on holiday, Vasily meets a woman from the city named Raisa Zakharovna (Lyudmila Gurchenko), with whom he eventually has an affair. After some time with Raisa in her city apartment, Vasily comes to miss his family and regrets his decision to leave them.

Vladimir Gurkin did not make up this story: it actually happened to his acquaintances who had the same surname in the film. The prototypes of Mitya and Shura were Gurkin’s grandparents.

Vladimir Menshov saw the play quite by accident. When he saw Nina Doroshina playing the role of Nadya in the Sovremennik theatre he decided to make a movie.

Shura – Natalya Tenyakova and Mitya - Sergei Yursky are husband and wife in real life.

In the script Nadya is a middle-aged woman and Shura is an old retired woman, whereas in real life Nina Doroshina who played Nadya is 10 years older than Natalya Tenyakova who played Shura in the film. At the time of filming Nina Doroshina was 50 years old and Natalya Tenyakova was 40.

The film was shot in Karelia, on the outskirts of the city of Medvezhyegorsk, in a house on the bank of the river Kumsa. The vacation episodes were shot in Batumi.

• Alexander Mikhailov as Vasily Kuzyakin
• Nina Doroshina as Nadya, Vasily's wife
• Lyudmila Gurchenko as Raisa Zakharovna
• Yana Lisovskaya as Luda, Vasily's eldest daughter
• Lada Sizonenko as Olya, Vasily's youngest daughter
• Igor Lyakh as Leonid, Vasily's son
• Sergei Yursky as uncle Mitya
• Natalya Tenyakova as old woman Shura, uncle Mitya's wife
• Vladimir Menshov as leading cadres

• Love and Pigeons at IMDb
• Watch Love and Pigeons online at official Mosfilm site (with English subtitles)
• Director's interview about the film