Born in Hiroshima – already after the bombing but to the parents exposed to radiation – Yuriko is leukemic, and will never star in the role she is so passionately rehearsing.

Why do we suggest that you see the film after completely spoiling its ending?

For the sake of the sincerity and tenderness shining through the relations between the main characters.

For Komaki Kurihara's performance. Before filming, the actress had not spoken a word of Russian, and had only ballet in high school, yet in each single frame she speaks and dances herself, without doubles.

For the creative tandem of Alexander Mitta and Kenji Yoshida. The first would later film "Step", another movie starring Komaki, the second – "The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin", yet another iconic Soviet-Japanese project.

For what the creators themselves said about the film:

"We stepped up to the task because of our heartfelt wish to help Japanese audiences get a better understanding of the Soviet Union, even come to love it. This wish is more than a reflection of my personal artistic tastes. […] The thing is that Soviet people seem to know more about Japan than Japanese people know about Russia. For example, there is a book by V.Ovchinnikov, "Sakura Branch". Quite a lot of people in Japan have read it, and thus discovered that it was quite possible for a foreigner to understand a country as complex as Japan, to see our strengths and weaknesses, and to describe it all so vividly to his compatriots. […] In Japan, though, there are no such books about the Soviet Union for what I know…"

What can we call it but people's diplomacy?