ericoblair Proust meets "Groundhog Day" in a Donbass coal mining town of Stalinist Russia, with a soundtrack featuring Nautilus Pompilius doing "Goodbye America" – is it any wonder that Khotinenko's Mirror ranks as one of a half-dozen perestroika-era movies that have achieved must-see status for Russians, ex-Soviets, never-were-Soviets and the rest of us?The high-dome version: Zerkalo/Mirror said two things well in 1987 and just as well today: (1) the past is more complex than you thought; and (2) you can't fix it but you can understand it better – which makes empathy possible and reconciliation within reach. To describe much more is to deprive Mirror of some of its power to surprise, so enough said – OK, plus these extra credit questions: 1. Does the Mirror of the title reflect (as it were) A. Tarkovsky's Mirror of 1974? And 2. Is somebody trying to further Perestroika II by putting Perestroika I movies like this one on prime-time Moscow TV so frequently of late, as the reports have it? Isn't that a nice conspiracy theory to contemplate, for a change?

ollaer * Some of it may be a spoiler* Two friends, typical average middle-class Soviet men of late 80s, are walking along when one of them trips on a rusty wire, sticking out of the ground. Miraculously, (and at first unknown to them) they are transfered some 40 years back, in year 1949, the zenith of Stalinist era. They are forced to re-live the same day in '49 over and over again (this movie was filmed some six years before Groundhog Day, and I wonder sometimes if it inspired it in some ways). They can't change the events but they themselves change, and find out what each of them is really worth. The movie title, translated in English, means "A Mirror for a Hero".

Efenstor Take any of the Andrey Tarkovsky's movies, take away all the art-houseness from it and you'll get "Zerkalo dlya geroya". Quite interesting that I watched this movie when was a child and didn't like it because I didn't understand a thing, watched it when I was a teenager and quite liked it but didn't understand it anyway and finally I've watched it now and found that it's a great movie with a good and deep idea.The plot (no big spoilers): Young Sergey (Sergey Koltakov) and his old father are two quite different men: Sergey cannot understand why his father is so concerned about the other people's fates, about fates of towns and villages and the fate of the whole country. He finds him an old fool, but Sergey's own fate soon forces him to understand his father. On a show of the rock band "Nautilus Pompilius" (semi-underground at the Soviet times) he meets Andrey, an aged man who was once imprisoned for an incident on a coal mine that was under his management. After the show they take a walk in a park and suddenly discover that a movie is being made there. The two want to find a better place to see the movie-makers set and Andrey suggests one. The two run around a high concrete fence and Andrey stumbles at a thick wire stuck in the ground. He falls. Once he is up the both men walk to the end of the fence and suddenly find there is no park behind it: they see a steam engine and a militiaman in the uniform of Stalin times, they find themselves in a little coal-mining town they were both grown in. Soon Andrey begins to think that fate gives him a chance to prevent the accident he was imprisoned for, Sergey unwillingly discovers his father's generation for himself, their time, their lives and what they lived for.Acting, as well as photography and direction is absolutely amazing. The scenes in the old coal mine are stunning and unforgettable. Very sensible and thoughtful movie that still doesn't leave a heavy trace as all the Tarkovsky's works. And of course, some knowledge of who Stakhanov and NKVD were would be very helpful if you want to understand everything.

artlaub This movie is very redicules at first time seeing it, especially the first half of the movie, later its going a little bit boring but all in all a good movie I give him 7 of 10 points. Its a typical perestroika-movie. The first perestroika movies were in 1986 like w strelyajushej glushi or posledniy reportazh, but this movie is one of the first perestroika-movies, too. The story is interesting, which shows a new generation of russian movies, which were mid-late80's til mid 90's. ++++++