After taking on the challenge of mass scenes and the supremacy of History with the revolutionary epic Moskva v Oktjabre (Moscow in October), Barnet returned to depicting everyday life.
In the story of Paranja, who travels from the countryside to the capital to find her uncle, the old and the new clash and coexist in a myriad of symbols. The limits of Trubnaja square, one of the most popular places in the city at the time, gradually disappear in a Moscow that receives, spurns, contains everything, becoming itself a protagonist. The perception of the city is compelling; with the camera’s constantly changing position, the indoor and outdoor shots tell the story in an immensely organic perspective that eventually focuses in on the character. As opposed to the empty scenes of Devuška s korobkoj, here spaces are crowded, creating a counterpoint to ingenuous Paranja’s disorientation. A balanced story (uncompromised by the missing fifth reel) in which Barnet, without any ideological intention, puts the spotlight on the contrast between the main character and the predominant rules of behavior. In this struggle between old and new, the “antagonists” nepmany also receive equal attention and soft humor. If in the adventures of Nataša the loyal housekeeper fed into the complacency of Madame Irène and her idle husband, in Trubnaja the ostentatious aristocratic pretensions of the Golikovs in exploiting a naive girl express a sense of decline, between mockery and melancholy. Acting as the desperate owner is again Fogel’, a prominent actor of Kulešov’s, in one of his final extraordinary performances.