A study of post-war loss and decay is presented in poetic and atmospheric images, all in good artistic taste, but without any direct political stance.

I did enjoy this film - it's reflective, not too melancholy, not too taxing. It is a pleasant film.

It seems to me like this film inspired Utomlennoe Solntzem too, so that's a good enough reason to watch it as any. Like that other film, Panny z Wilco paints a convincing and pretty picture of the life of a large family and the theme of a man returning to such a place after many years to confront a romance which was left unfinished is mirrored. 'Burnt By the Sun' does owe a lot to Mikhailkov's earlier 'An Unfinished Piece for the Mechanical Piano' as well. Based on a Chekhovian play, (this film also features a scene were the mystery of a past romance is revealed to all present through the telling of a story.)

(In fact a tango is played, in Panny z Wilco, on the gramophone at one point that sounds suspiciously similar to the song of the title of that other film...)

Jola, one of the four sisters at Wilko, keeps breaking into lovely spontaneous laughter (I'm not sure why I mention this, it's just that, it seems to me, spontaneous laughter deserves a mention).