The First Teacher

Andrei Konchalovsky, Kirghizfilm-Mosfilm, 1965; 102m

Based, like Larisa Shepitko's HEAT, on a story by Chingiz Aitmatov, Konchalovsky's directing debut similarly recasts frontier drama for Soviet Asia, which once again proves a fertile soil for such transplants (by the time the smash action-comedy White Sun of the Desert came out in 1970, Soviet critics have embraced "the Eastern" as a legitimate genre term). The story takes place in 1923 and begins with a Communist teacher's attempts to set up a school in a Kirghiz village, soon enough acquiring a forbidden-love subplot. THE FIRST TEACHER has brought Kirghiz actress Natalya Arinbasarova the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, and Konchalovsky a Golden Lion nomination.