灰色華爾滋

As World War II wanes, the Soviet government sends envoys to villages in northern Russia. Their mission is to teach teenage girls to defuse German bombs still embedded in the earth. Meanwhile, the rowan trees are in bloom; they blossom only briefly, yet their wood is resilient. And though so different in temperament, the two young girls in one village are also ripe for love. Marusya is a beauty who can sing and play the guitar, but is hopeless at chores. Polina is a young mother whose husband hasn’t returned from battle. Her addled sister sits in her own twilight world, making rag dolls. Polina’s great fear is that her son might wander onto the minefield and be killed. Until recently, this field was prime land on which the village grew its wheat for bread. Now loaded with explosives, it has taken on an alien character. The high-spirited girl recruits are typically silly at first; they vie for the attention of the handsome soldiers charged with teaching them and refuse to take their role as bomb detectors seriously. Inevitably, though, accidents begin to happen and they realize that their future looks grimly earnest.