Muratova's genius isfor intimate dramas, treated with an experimental, unpredictablenaturalness that penetrates to the level of human vulnerability.Muratova stars in Brief Encounters with the late Vladimir Vyssozki, apopular dissident folk singer who was officially ostracized and came toa dissolute end. (He has posthumously been celebrated within thecounterculture as a tragic figure.) The film concerns an urban planner(Muratova) obsessed with the housing shortage, her geologist lover(Vyssozki), and their housekeeper (Nina Ruslanova) who discovers theoften absent lover to be none other than her first love, for whom theflame still burns. But he is a rather romantic figure, a kind ofintellectual vagabond usually represented in their flat only by hisguitar hanging on the wall, so the two women have much time and freedomto share their memories, dreams and jokes. In an intricate, ellipticalnarrative, Muratova develops-partly through the eyes of thehousekeeper-the fact of an enduring love between this long-standingcouple despite the exigencies of their unconventional living situation.