On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She's Anna Sergeyovna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He's unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair. After a short time, she returns to Saratov, he to Moscow, believing it's good-by forever. All winter he is miserable, enervated, distracted by tristesse. In desperation, he contrives to go to Saratov, surprising her at a concert. Fearing discovery in her home town, she promises to come to Moscow. Will they cast aside reputation to live together, or will theirs be an affair of infrequent encounters in hotel rooms? Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}
Charles Burnett, one of America's most highly regarded independent filmmakers, wrote and directed this domestic drama about a black middle-class family living in South central Los Angeles. However, there are no gangs, no guns, no drugs but instead a lyrical story that draws on folklore and the supernatural.
family tensions are already simmering when Harry (Danny Glover) arrives to visit his old friends. He exudes an easy charm, knows secret past and present and is soon installed in the heart of the family. However, as his stay lengthens, so does he begin to cast an even more malevolent spell, provoking turmoil, setting son against son, reviving past hatreds, and inflicting a mysterious illness.
Glover delivers a career-topping performance as the garrulous family friend, full of hidden menace, effortlessly evoking nostalgia and horror in the same breath.
As ever, Burnett provides a wonderful music track featuring gospel, blues and jazz and a cameo from the legendary Jimmy Weatherspoon.
'A slow-burning, soul-insinuating, 12-bar blues of a movie.' Tom Charity, Time Out
'Danny Glover is marvellous, and terrifying, as a charismatic old-timer.' The Times
(from the description on the back cover of the DVD)