The Steamroller and the Violin

The Steamroller and the Violin
2002 US release DVD cover
Directed by	Andrei Tarkovsky
Written by	Andrei Konchalovsky Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring	Igor Fomchenko Vladimir Zamansky
Music by	Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
Cinematography	Vadim Yusov
Edited by	Lyubov Butuzova
Release date	December 30, 1961 (U.S.S.R.) August 18, 1962 (U.S.)
Running time	46 min.
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

The Steamroller and the Violin (Russian: Каток и скрипка, translit. Katok i skripka), is a 1961 featurette directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film tells the story of the unlikely friendship of Sasha (Igor Fomchenko), a little boy, and Sergey (Vladimir Zamansky), the operator of a steamroller. The film was Tarkovsky's diploma film at the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), but was made at the Mosfilm studio.

Sasha (Igor Fomchenko) is a boy who lives with his mother (Marina Adzhubei) and his sister in an old house in Moscow. He is learning to play the violin. Every morning he has to cross the yard to go to the music school, trying to avoid some other children who are bullying and harassing him. This day he is lucky as Sergey (Vladimir Zamansky), the operator of a steamroller, tells them to leave Sasha alone.

At the music school he plays beautifully, but his teacher, who is more interested in form and order, is stifling his creativity with a metronome. On his way back home Sasha meets Sergey again, who allows him to help him on the steamroller. The two have lunch together and face a number of adventures as they walk around Moscow. They watch a wrecking ball demolishing a decrepit building, revealing one of the Seven Sisters in the background. Sergey tells stories about the war, and Sasha play the violin for his new friend.

They part with the plan to see a film together, but the plans are foiled by Sasha's mother. Sasha attempts to sneak out of the apartment, and in the final scene we see Sasha running after the steamroller in a dream like sequence.

The script for The Steamroller and the Violin was written by Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrei Konchalovsky, a fellow student of Tarkovsky at the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). They worked on the script for more than six months in 1959 and 1960. According to an interview with Polish journalist Zdzislaw Ornatowski, Tarkovsky wanted the film to be a poetic film, based on mood and atmosphere, not on sharp conflicts or traditional dramaturgy.