dreams, wind, poetry, world war ii, cigarette, field, spanish civil war (1936-39), nostalgia, forest, terminal illness, flashback, dying man, avant-garde, illness, childhood, post world war ii, dream sequence, newsreel footage, reflection, poetry recitation, russian history, historical drama, memoirs, 1940s, 1960s, non-narrative, somber, self reflection, 1930s, portrait of an artist, dreamlike, russia, soviet union history, memories, stream of consciousness, existentialist, 20th century, experimental film, pre war soviet union, russian poetry, nonlinear narrative, voice-over, nostalgic memory, biographical drama, the great patriotic war, dying poet,