An impeccable and very touching adaptation of one of Turgenev's great novels, with powerful insights into human psychology. This film follows the novel quite closely, and successfully manages to capture its mood and main ideas. The film shows the contradiction in intergenerational love between parents and children and the "nihilistic" rejection of the principles and values of the elders by the more energetic and somewhat arrogant youths. It also portrays the tensions between conforming to tradition and protesting, trying to find one's unique path in life. Traditional courtship and marriage is shown side by side with more complex relationship between the sexes.