Fidelity (original title: Vernost’) is a Russian drama film premiered in 2019 and directed by Nigita Saibel (Nigina Sayfullaeva) and Lyubov Mulmenko. The film title, translated as loyalty or faithfulness, prepares the audience for a story that explores the difficult limits of trust, love, and the emotional honesty that we take for granted in relationships.
Fidelity is unlike traditional romantic dramas. Here, the story is less about romantic gestures and more about the internal conflict of emotional disconnection in a seemingly solid relationship. The film is a communication of the deepest stillness between two people. It is about the challenge of remaining in closeness, of shrinking into silence and disallowing oneself to be known, to be understood.
The protagonist is Lena (Evgeniya Gromova), a 30-year-old woman who practices gynecology in a small Russian town. Intelligent, responsible, and accomplished, Leiter the community respects Lena and values the importance of her work. She is married to Sergey (Aleksandr Pal), a local theater actor. Together, they enjoy a calm and stable life in a modest apartment, with steady jobs and predictable routines.Underneath this veneer of normalcy lies a quiet emotional void. It is as if Lena has started to detect a weakening of Sergey’s feelings toward her. He is distracted and withdrawn, and he is often absorbed in work. Attempts at communication from her side do not work as almost all of their dialogues remain polite and hollow bordering on the tedious, devoid of the emotional substance and conversations rest.
Rather than a direct confrontation, Lena sinks further into a solipsistic reverie. A soul in the silence needs answers to the question of the “faithful,” whether it be toward a partner or to one’s self. Domestic drama as a genre gives way to a complex study of the yearning for identity, the void, and the desire to be acknowledged and appreciated.
Lena, inescapably, is in the introspective realm of decision-making, where the quest for meaning in life beyond the mundane, everyday routines, is marked by her conundrum of moral values that reject emotional fulfillment. Her actions are less focused on a cause of betrayal, or wrongdoing, but the understanding of the drift in love and complex essence of intimacy that is devoid of candor and honesty.
Main Characters
Lena (Evgeniya Gromova)
Lena is the center of the story. A woman whose emotional intuition and sympathy starkly contrast with her increasing loneliness. As a doctor, she is able to witness the lives and the intricacies of other people’s lives, forcing her to examine and evaluate the lives of others. While her disposition is calm, she is introspective to the point of her silence. In the portrayal of Lena, Evgeniya Gromova captures the silence and the loneliness to an extent that the audience is able to sense Lena’s desire and confusion without a word of dialogue.
Lena is also the story’s self-discovery character. She is initially a person expected to carry the burden of other people’s responsibilities, but she eventually learns to hear her own emotions and desires. The film tackles the most universal of questions through her eyes. What is the essence of loyalty? Is it possible to be loyal to someone yet lose oneself in the process?
Sergey (Aleksandr Pal)
Sergey is Lena’s husband, and like the character describes, is a man caught in the middle of being satisfied yet also being unsatisfied. Working as an actor, emotional articulation is one of the most important skills to have, but in personal life, he is unable to communicate with those around him. Sergey is not the unkind or careless person in this situation. He simply is the reality of how the unspoken and the everyday routines can slowly but surely break the emotional ties in a relationship.
Aleksandr Pal’s portrayal of Lena’s husband exudes an admirable restraint that yet undoubtably renders Pal’s performance both realistic and sympathetic. Lena and Aleksandr both want to bridge the emotional distance but lack the tools to solve the puzzle, leaving both Lena and Aleksandr emotionally confused.
Support Characters
Lena’s acquaintances, colleagues, and patients provide the supporting cast. Each of these refers to unique positions on the issues of love, partnership, and self realization. The interconnected, subtler narratives function to highlight the emotional intricacy of Lena’s situation, indicating that her challenges are part of the larger human condition.
Thematic Concerns and Symbolism
- Emotional Fidelity
The question of loyalty, in the varied and complex forms, is constructed in yet another layer in the title, Fidelity. It raises the question of whether someone can be ‘faithful’ in body but emotionally disengaged, and thus resonating the film’s central question, Lena. Fidelity explores the painful reality that emotional absence can darken the relationship just as betrayal.
- Communication and Distance
A unique and powerful idea presented in the film is that the collapse of relationships does not occur instantaneously. Instead, the breakdown of communication results in a gradual fading of the relationship. Lena and Sergey seldom engage in open conflict, yet their polite silences indicate deeper relationships. There is a fear of confrontation, unresolved disappointment, and a breakdown of vulnerability. The film portrays communication not as the constant barrage of words, but rather as the courageous act of sharing one’s true feelings, however painful. - Identity and Self-Reflection
As many individuals do in dedicating themselves to a career or a family, Lena’s journey throughout the film is an attempt to redefine herself. For Lena, the question is what lies beyond the identities of a doctor or a wife. Throughout the film, Fidelity successfully portrays self-reflection as a crucial element of emotional development, and in a very positive way, perhaps influenced by the character’s introspection.
- The Modern Dilemma of Relationships
The film critiques relationships that sit within the convoluted and complicated expectations of modernity. Lena and Sergey exist within an era of shifting social and domestic roles: women actively seek independence beyond the domestic sphere, while men become emotionally burdened and frustrated. The emotional conflict within the story is deeply influenced by these social expectations. - The Nature of Loneliness
At its core, Fidelity is a film about loneliness; not the loneliness of being alone, but the kind of disorder that one has with a companion. Lena’s solitude ‘musing’ moments reflect the fact that one can be lonely in the company of others. The film does not consider loneliness an issue, rather, it takes it to be a reality of human existence the condition that urges one to think and to grow.
Cinematography and Direction
Nigina Sayfullaeva directs the story with an approach that is minimalist and contemplative. For the subdued emotional tone, Denis Firstov, the director of photography, deployed soft, natural lighting, and muted color palettes. The visuals concentrate on minute elements — hands in motion, silences between utterances, and uncertain glances. These understated facets communicate a feeling more eloquently and potently than overwrought displays.
Many scenes unfold in expressive ordinariness — in apartments, offices, on streets, and in cafes. The routine elements of life can propel emotionally laden moments, and the film makes that point quietly and reflectively. The film’s unapologetically calm, almost meditative rhythm is an invitation to Lena’s interior monologue.
Sound design complements the understated quality of the film by only incorporating silence, background sounds, and music when necessary. The ambience of quiet reflects the characters’ emotional restraint, internalizing the narrative. It captures the most human experiences occurring silently and privately.
Performance and Emotional Tone
Evgeniya Gromova’s success central to the film remains pivotal. As Lena, she performs distinctly and admirably as a woman experiencing the conflict of emotional truth laced with duty. Her calm expressions and strength invite empathy towards her internal struggles, allowing the audience to feel her. Aleksandr Pal as Sergey complements Gromova beautifully, as his emotional conflict and uncertainty gives a realistic counter to the story.
In Fidelity, the emotional letter is born not of the expected embrace of melodrama, but the powerful stillness of the characters. It conveys the essence of modern reality, as though the audience is witnessing and experiencing the truth of disengagement and intimacy.
Reception and Interpretation
For its authentic and artistic honesty, Fidelity has integrated itself successfully within the international film community. The film’s direction and emotional realism within the performances has resulted in a stark emotional portrayal of intimacy resonating with the audience in a powerful way. Unlike other films, Fidelity is given a stark emotional black and white realism, unmasking emotional intimacy within relationships not typically found in the modern narrative.
Reviewers appreciate that Fidelity shows empathy towards characters rather than blaming them. It understands that a marriage must be seen as a work in progress and describes the perfect marriage as a marriage of choice, compromise, and rediscovery.
Conclusion
Fidelity (2019) is a modest and profound study of human relationships showcasing the shifting foundations of love and commitment over time. It calls for a revision of loyalty and happiness as a self-defining principle, asking that one’s attention be directed toward the true essence of faithfulness, in relation to oneself first, then to someone else.
The film suggests that understated direction and natural performances testify to the precise evocation of real emotional states—uncertainty, desire, compassion, and the desire for understanding.
Finally, Fidelity teaches us that love must be defined in relation to the self and that a heartfelt, empathetic acknowledgement of our imperfections must be the keystone of love. Marriage must be seen as a work in progress.
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