As the filmmakers introduced the film, they stressed the importance of character in the work. Editor Julija Rumjanceva reassured us with the comment that, yes, the film is long at 146min, but when it was shown in Russia, the audience was so involved with the characters that they felt it in fact to be much shorter. And I have to admit, I did quite agree with this. As Rogozkin told us, there are 36 characters in the film ("and I do not want to differentiate between main and supporting roles"), and we do feel involved with almost all of these. Peregon relates the lives and relations of people living on an isolated military base in Chukotka, Siberia. It is set in the winter of 1942-43, and shows the coming and goings of Russian and American pilots who are flying lend-lease planes from Alaska to Chukotka and then on to the Russian front. The main focus, though, is on the characters against this context. Much to everyone's surprise, the pilots who bring the planes from Alaska are in fact all women - which is much to the delight of the young pilots.

This situation provides for the first side of Rogozkin's portrayal of individual affairs. As would be expected, this herd of young men jumps at the sight of twelve young accomplished ladies marching into their base. They are ordered to entertain them somehow, and so put on a foxtrot, and dance with them, trying to woo them by talking at them in Russian (and then attempting to learn English). And inevitably, some of them form quite an attachment to their chosen amerikanka. The superiors of course take a dislike to this and either make fun of the boys, or create rules which are meant to prevent the two groups from meeting. Emotional attachments have no place in a military base. But actually they are extremely prevalent here - "oh how complicated it is here", says the investigator when he comes to inspect the base following the death of base commander Foma Ilijic. Be it romantic entanglements - we find out that Irina, the interpreter, is the estranged wife of Foma, and is now involved with Sergei Mikhailovic, and Foma in turn has been involved with cook Valja who is now carrying his child - or simply the expression of personal delights - the new cook Roman asks the pilots to bring him a hog from Alaska so that he can feed them fresh meat, and instead is brought a piglet, to whom several of the people on the base get quite attached, before he is sent away with the Americans because obstreperous Foma does not like it. Similarly, the young Chukotian helper Vasilij's jokes and nonsense are charming and certainly not helpful towards any war efforts. While all the work goes on, only unsympathetic characters such as the investigator or the raving Foma Ilijic talk about the main front. Of course, all of them are working conscientiously as they should, but most of them have other things at the forefront of their minds. Rogozkin is successful in his effort to make us relate with the characters of his 'kino-roman' as indeed we do care about what is going on in this base. He uses humour and a light touch, gradually revealing details about the characters, which presents them to us in a natural way, and allows us to become involved in their lives. Consequently, he does indeed create a work which gestures back to the traditions of 19th century literature with its realist and detailed treatment of character. We see in this film as we do in that literature the following theme - the individual vs. greater powers. Most of the characters' individual desires are squashed by some or other larger force: the pilot's attempts at wooing are stopped either by their superiors or by plane crashes, the beloved piglet is sent away by the officers, Roman's attempts to introduce higher culinary creations are met with bemusement or the declaration that they are 'fascist' (he bakes Berlinský Strudel..) and when Vasilij's dream of becoming a pilot is fulfilled, he is killed in battle.

Now, the film is also a meeting of cultures - the cooperation of Russian and American forces in the war effort. However, the Americans in this film come off quite flatly. All the Russians in the film have great dreams and emotions, but never do we see any of the Americans show any feeling. In military dealings they show an appropriate level of respect, but the amerikanki hardly show any warmth towards the Russians that so genuinely court them; they make fun of Russian traditions, "we've toasted everyone but the dog!"; and the American officer supervising the checking of the planes is depicted as less than thorough. The Russian officers also say, "America is a rich country - they can afford to feed the pig, give it to them." As often is the case in Russia (though not always), Americans are seen as gleaming ambassadors of a rich state, rather than individuals.

Rogozkin's film is strong, the isolation of the setting makes us concentrate on the dealings of its characters, and the director is successful in his aim of portraying the nature of human endeavour, and its conflict with more powerful figures (after all, it is set in the Stalinist USSR) or greater forces. And this is all done very much in the Russian style.