Peppi Dlinnyichulok povest-skazka by Lungina L. Lindgren A.My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I heart Peppi, or Pippi, if you like. When I was in elementary school, the Soviet television version came out (1982) and to watch the premiere, i would have had to miss school. (That makes no sense to me, but is true. Perhaps, it was a case of one of those silly occasions, when a weekend was declared to begin on Friday, and all the Soviet citizenry had to put in a day of work on a Sunday following. Or maybe the anti-authoritarian streak in Peppi was deemed slightly dangerous: not quite dangerous enough to prohibit, but suspicious enough for the censorious television programmer not to grant it the primest spot.
Somehow I convinced my mother to let me stay home that day. At the time, I was just becoming friends with a prettiest girl in my class. ( at least that's how I remember her). Things weren't going well with my then girlfriend Olya, and I was eager to cultivate Oksana, who was the 'starosta' of our class (something like an honorary student, perfect grades, neatest demeanor and costuming, a model of disciplined young pioneer, who was responsible for reminding the other nine year olds to behave and to study). I lived in the old part of Baku, and every morning Oksana would come by my house, and i would take her to school always by a different route, through a different winding little alleyway, except on the day of Peppi the Movie. As I tried, leaning out the window, to blame the elaborate hoarseness of my voice on yesterday's ice cream (oh, how different from those other occasions when the real cough, initiator of a bronchitis, had to be concealed from the parents: "No,no, just choking on my saliva"), Oksana stomped her feet, and shouting like one who is being betrayed: "Liar! You just want to watch Peppi!", she raced away. That romance withered. Peppi is a zealous mistress and brooks no opposition.
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