A young man gently lends his jacket to a beautiful stranger when a refreshing summer rain unexpectedly pours down on the streets of Moscow. Several telephone conversations between the two, the break-up of a long-standing relationship and, above all, the aimless wanderings of the heroine Lena through Moscow and the apartments of friends characterize this light-footed film fable.
With July Rain (Ijul'skij dožd, 1967), Marlen Chuciev continues his masterpiece Ilyich's Gate (Zastava Il'iˇca, 1962), made five years earlier: many things initially seem familiar, but changes soon become apparent. The young Muscovites are now in their thirties, have regular jobs and at the same time long for something new. Instead of thinking about personal development in a collective, instead of discussions in a circle of like-minded people, a silence about the essentials dominates here. The camera observes a mood of ritualized togetherness, characterized by the exchange of banalities and rehearsed poses. Once again, Chuciev has precisely depicted the social changes of his time and, in particular, the feeling of lost hope in the heralded end of the thaw. And this film was also only shown in cinemas for a short time...
