Through Main Street with an Orchestra

1986 film

12 May 1986 (1986-05-12)

Running time

94 minutesCountrySoviet UnionLanguageRussian

Through Main Street with an Orchestra (Russian: По главной улице с оркестром, romanized: Po glavnoy ulitse s orkestrom) is a 1986 Soviet musical film directed by Pyotr Todorovsky.^[1]

Plot

50-year-old teacher Vasily Muravin is experiencing a middle-age crisis. He is replaced at work from his post as head of the department by a more pragmatic, but limited Valentin Romanovsky and his wife Lida earns more than him and habitually complains about his indecisiveness. Muravin finds it difficult to reconcile with peoples attitude towards him, but what makes him the most upset is his wife's disrespect towards his main hobby – guitar playing. One day unable to bear any more mockery he leaves his home. He plays for the public at the River Station and then decides not to return home or to work.

During one of his speeches to an idle public Muravin sees his daughter Ksenia. A new level of communication begins between them when they learn things about each other that they did notice during the time they lived together. Father helps Ksyusha to understand the situation with a married doctor Igor, from whom she is bearing a child (it later turns out to be a lie to make Igor stay with her).

Ksyusha tries to teach practicality to her father after she sees that the arranger Konstantin Mikhailovich brazenly appropriates the melodies which her father played on guitar.

For Muravin, what is more important is the existence of melodies and his own independence from the "artistic council".