If Nebo. Samolyot. Devushka (Sky. Plane. Girl) seems like a very personal movie, it’s because it is. The film’s scriptwriter and producer, Renata Litvinova, has always been known for her cerebral, philosophical and oblique texts and ideas. But in this film she also proves herself as a brilliant leading actress.

The film is actually a remake of the 1966 "Once Again About Love," written by leading contemporary Russian playwright Edward Radzinsky. Why did Litvinova, who is such a freedom-loving, original, independent and self-reliant person, choose Radzinsky’s play for her scenario? Probably because she has a natural talent to find her comfort zone in any project.

In Nebo. Samolyot. Devushka, she is like a cat playing with a ball of string that’s continuously untangling. Nebo. Samolyot. Devushka is set in a few airports, somewhere in modern-day Russia. Litvinova’s heroine, Lara, is a stewardess who flies so often she can hardly remember the name of the town she was in the day before. Her world is the hum of airplanes, cold and lifeless waiting rooms, long corridors and the beautiful Moscow sky, with scattered clouds that reflect Lara’s mood and feelings.

Lara loves Georgy (Dmitry Orlov), a journalist who works in hot spots and flies almost as often as she does. Sensitive to a fault, Lara gives the impression of a woman who has been beamed into the wrong profession and the wrong life and so she’s destined to be a lost soul, with or without Georgy. Georgy is different, a down-to-earth kind of man who doesn’t really need anyone.

What’s odd and brilliant about Nebo. Samolyot. Devushka is that Litvinova seems to communicate with the audience with only the phrase "I love you. Do you love me?" – pronounced by Lara like a spell. Litvinova’s job, both in the movie and in her life, is to set the mood, and this is something she does with visible delight.