Could One Imagine?


Could One Imagine?, also released as Love and Lies, is a 1981 Soviet teen drama film directed by Ilya Frez based on the novella by Galina Shcherbakova.

Plot

High school student Katya Shevchenko moves to a new district and meets classmate Roman Lavochkin at school. Gradually their friendship grows into love, which appears surprisingly strong to the adults around them. Roman's father, Konstantin, was in love with Katya's mother, Lyudmila, who eventually rejected him. Roman's mother, Vera, jealous of Katya's mother, hates her and her daughter. Aspiring to separate the children by force, she transfers Roman to another school and forbids them to meet. But love between Katya and Roman does not diminish.
Then Vera deceives her son, forcing him to leave Moscow for Leningrad for a long time to take care of an allegedly sick grandmother, who in turn suppresses Katya's attempts to reach Roman or write to him. Katya and Roman are supported only by classmates and teacher Tatyana Nikolaevna, who faces problems in her own personal life. She becomes aware of Vera's deception and tells the truth to Lyudmila and her husband, Vladimir. Katya decides to go to Leningrad and find out everything herself. In the meantime, Roman, who can not understand why Katya does not answer any of his letters, calls Tatyana Nikolaevna. She mistakes him for Mikhail, her lover with whom she had a falling-out, and tells him never to call again. Pained and uncertain, Roman accidentally overhears a telephone conversation between his grandmother and his mother, and finds out the truth: the grandmother is not sick at all, and all of this is merely an act to prevent him from seeing Katya any more.
Shocked by the betrayal of those close to him, Roman locks himself in his room. The grandmother tries to reach him. Roman looks out his window and sees Katya, who has come to Leningrad. Roman tries to leave the room, but his grandmother tries to keep him from Katya and her "vicious" family. Roman opens the window and calls to Katya; but he slips on the windowsill and breaks the frame, and falls to the ground. His fall is mitigated by a snowdrift. Katya runs to him and tries to help him stand, but in the end they fall back together into the snow. They are watched by two children, a boy and a girl.

Cast