^^^ Added to my "must watch listing" TY!
Has anyone actually see "Firebird" -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4061620/
Yes, Vince, I saw
Firebird the other day. It's a dramatic UK/Estonian feature directed by Peeter Rebane. He was given the Russian memoir,
A Tale about Roman by the late Sergey Fetisov, a Russian farm boy conscripted into the Soviet airforce in the late 1970s. The director and expressive English actor Tom Prior who plays Sergey spent several years developing the screenplay. The film is in English.
At the Haapsalu Airbase in Estonia, Sergey is friendly with Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) who is the secretary of the commanding colonel. As the end his two years of compulsory military service is approaching he confides his ambition to study acting in Moscow and she hopes to marry him, though he is more interested discreetly in men. When maverick pilot Flight Lieutenant Roman Matveev (Oleg Zagorodnii) is posted to the base, the colonel assigns Sergey as his driver, so the three of them often come across each other.
The two men become friends as they discover shared interests in photography and theatre. Roman takes him to a matinee performance of the
Firebird ballet and Sergey is enraptured. On the way back to the base, Roman has Sergey stop and they go into the forest in the forbidden border zone and eat blueberries until a border patrol appears and they scramble to hide in the undergrowth. In the shared adrenaline high, Roman crosses the border between friendship and passionate love.
The lovers are in constant danger after someone reports his suspicions about Roman to the major who conducts a continuing campaign to trap him with his paramour, threatening him with five years hard labour and the loss of his career.
In due course, Sergey leaves for Moscow and drama school leaving Roman and Luisa still serving at the base. She doesn't know that Sergey and Roman are lovers.
The film is very well produced and includes beautiful photography especially of the characters at the seashore and swimming in the sea.