Gerasimov: By the Lake (1969)
Directed by Sergei Gerasimov. Starring Oleg Zhakov as Professor Barmin, Natalya Belokhvostikova as Lena, and Vasily Shukshin as Chernykh. Mosfilm Studios. USSR State Prize, 1971.
Description: Few Soviet films dared to stage the conflict between industrial progress and environmental protection as openly as Sergei Gerasimov's By the Lake (У озера, 1969). In this scene, Professor Barmin — a scientist who has dedicated his life to Baikal — confronts Chernykh, the factory director determined to expand production on the lake's shore. Chernykh is played by Vasily Shukshin, himself one of Soviet cinema's great voices for ordinary Russian life and its costs. Their argument is not between hero and villain but between two legitimate Soviet values: industrialization and nature. The film refuses to resolve the tension easily.