The Luncheon on the Grass (Russian: Завтрак на траве, romanized: Zavtrak na trave) is a 1979 Soviet children's two-part television film directed by Nikolai Alexandrovich based on the stories of Anatoly Chernousov.[1]
The film is titled after the painting Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe / The Luncheon on the Grass by Claude Monet[2] from the album of the Impressionists, presented to young cartoonist-surrealist Dima Murashkin by Pioneer leader Ivan Kovalyov.
Plot
Graduate Ivan Nikolayevich Kovalev is preparing to enter the institute. His friend Sergei Pavlovich convinces Ivan to engage in this training in the pioneer camp as a pioneer leader, where there is plenty of free time and sun. Ivan agrees, but after a few days he regrets very much about his decision: the pioneers smoke constantly and ignore the daily schedule, and there is no peace and quiet for studying.
Only the experienced teacher, pioneer Alexander Petrovna, is capable of dealing with them. On top of that, a group of guys run from the camp to the forest, where they bake potatoes in the ashes and sing songs. For this they are threatened with getting expelled from the pioneer camp. Ivan decides to postpone his studies, take bail for children and join the pioneer life. He takes part on an equal footing in the daily life of his detachment and gains authority.
Lyudmila Graves – Lusia Pinigina, a girl with a low content of hemoglobin, who loves fairy tales and books (voiced by Glagoleva, Vera Vitalevna, Vera Glagoleva)
Maxim Shirokov – Dima Murashkin, the white crow / pessimistic surrealist who paints cartoons
Alexander Koptev – Yura Shiryaev
Igor Knyazev – Mukhanov
Alexander Zhdanov – Anokhin
Tatyana Samsonova – fashionista
Aleksandr Demyanenko – Vasily Vasilievich, the head of the pioneer camp (voiced by Boris Ivanov)
Gennady Yalovich – Filimonov, a teacher of physical education in the pioneer camp
Vladimir Novikov – Sergei Pavlovitch, Senior Pioneer Leader (voiced by Aleksandr Belyavsky)
^See second part of the film "The Luncheon on the Grass", 9 minutes and 21 seconds from the beginning. The composition is partially reproduced by Murashkin's picture shown in the finale (1 hour 2 minutes 57 seconds from the beginning of the second part).