Nameless Star, A

Alternative title: Bezymyannaya Zvezda
Synopsis: Based on the 1943 stage play, "Steaua Fara Nume" by Romanian Jewish writer Iosef Hechter, writing under the pen name Mihail Sebastian (1907-1945). This version was made for television in 1978, but there was a previous Romanian-French film version made in 1966.
Set in Romania in the 1930s, "A Nameless Star" focuses on the unexpected arrival in a provincial town of a glamorous courtesan -- a gambler’s mistress -- from Bucharest. Her unplanned visit creates turmoil in the lives of several leading citizens. Among them are a young astronomer, a schoolmarm who is secretly obsessed with him, and the town’s musical genius. All of them are thwarted by narrow horizons, literal and figurative. When the courtesan is temporarily stranded in the astronomer’s house, she gradually reveals under her hard beauty a long-buried sweetness and integrity. Under her influence, the astronomer comes to reveal his own secret, and the two are drawn together. When the gambler comes to reclaim her, the star-crossed lovers dare to hope that the laws of physics will turn out to be wrong.
Language: Russian
Country: Russian Federation
Year of release: 2003
Year of production: 1978
Notes: PAL version available at additional cost
Subjects: Drama; Media studies
Keywords: drama in Russian; foreign language films; Russia

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