| A Driver for Vera | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Pavel Chukhraj |
| Produced by | Vitaly Koshman Alexander Rodnyansky |
| Written by | Pavel Chukhraj |
| Starring | Igor Petrenko Alena Babenko Bogdan Stupka |
| Music by | Eduard Artemyev |
| Cinematography | Igor Klebanov |
| Editing by | Olga Grinshpun |
| Distributed by | Nashe Kino |
| Release date(s) | Russia: 27 July 2004 Ukraine: 12 August 2004 France: 9 November 2004 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | Russia, Ukraine |
| Language | Russian |
| Budget | USD 3,300,000 (estimated)[1] |
| Box office | USD 2,011,837 (Russia), 22 August 2004 |
A Driver for Vera (Russian: Водитель для Веры, Voditel dlya Very) is a Ukrainian-Russian co-produced film from 2004, directed and written by Russian Pavel Chukhrai. This fact led to the film being rejected as Ukraine's entry for the Foreign Film Academy Awards category for 2005, due to a rule which states that "the submitting country must certify that creative talent of that country exercised artistic control of the film."[2]
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The plot of the film is set during the Khrushchev Thaw in the former Soviet Union, and concentrates on a young cadet in the Red Army named Viktor (Igor Petrenko) who becomes a chauffeur for his general (Bohdan Stupka) and begins a relationship with the general's daughter, Vera (Alena Babenko). Viktor becomes involved in a plot by the KGB, and a KGB agent (Andrei Panin) pushes Viktor to spy on the general for their purposes.[3]
The film received mixed reviews from American critics. Entertainment magazine Variety referred to the film as "more off-putting than enthralling" and noted that while the film has been compared to the Academy Award–winning Burnt by the Sun, it lacked a main character that a viewer could identify with. Variety also commented that Viktor's personal struggles seemed "irrelevant" and criticized Petrenko's "limited emotional repertoire", as well as the poor acting of the remaining cast of characters.[3]