Goodbye, Boys

Directed by a great lost name of '60s Soviet cinema, this was shelved and forbidden for export, emerging only 25 years later. It shouldn't be seen purely as a historical curio, though. Very much of its time, but still extremely fresh, it's an alternately lyrical and cynical evocation of youth in a Black Sea resort before World War II. Three adolescent boys enjoy their last summer together before being packed off reluctantly to military school. The use of newsreel footage - which was partly what got the film into trouble - is somewhat jarring, but otherwise it is light on polemic. The boys' quirks and follies are sympathetically observed, and the sense of place is flawless.