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# FILM REVIEW: Firebird
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/film-review-firebird/
- Published: 2022-06-15T14:00:35.000Z
- Updated: 2022-06-15T11:03:29.000Z
- Description: “What director Peeter Rebane pulls off is at once a realistic love story with thriller elements, set against the stupidity of authority.”
- Author: Brian Butler
- Tags: Arts, Reviews, Peccadillo Pictures

In 1977 Soviet-occupied Estonia, a secret and dangerous queer liaison starts between a private and a handsome, dashing pilot lieutenant.

In the brutal regime of a training camp and Air Force base on the front-line of the Soviet Union’s air defences, Sergey, a shy, good-looking airman with a love of photography, becomes the driver and assistant to an equally enthusiastic snapper of a new pilot, Roman (Ukrainian actor **Oleg Zagorodnil**), who has come to fill an important role at the base.

Their relationship, totally forbidden, ‘develops’ as well as their pictures. It’s a secret Sergey must keep even from his female colleague Luisa (**Diana Pozharskaya**), who rapidly gets involved in an outwardly friendly triangle with Roman.

What director **Peeter Rebane** pulls off is at once a realistic love story with thriller elements, set against the stupidity of authority. And the arc of the story includes a rightly suspicious major and a protective colonel who saves the two lovers’ bacon – probably inadvertently. A near-death experience for Roman adds passion to their affair, but things soon start to run far from smoothly. When Sergey leaves to become a drama student in Moscow, Roman must make up his mind about his future.

A hasty marriage between Roman and Luisa threatens the three’s relationships, with tragic results. It’s a great story on all levels and its title derives from the ballet which Roman introduces the innocent Sergey to.

Queer actor and co-writer **Tom Prior** is endearing as the slightly sullen, sometimes conflicted, sometimes infatuated, sometimes bitter, younger man. Oleg Zagorodnil is the smouldering matinee idol of a lieutenant and plays it well.

In the end it’s a tale of forbidden love, the power of art and the perils faced by earlier generations of queer lovers – and still today in Russia.

**It’s available from The Factory on various platforms and PeccadilloPOD.**