耐性劳力 (1987)

Leningrad Studio of Documentary Films offered Sokurov the order for a film about Leningrad Figure Skating School in the period when he had no work. The result of his work on this film in no ways could be considered apotheosis of sport and sport victories. His undivided attention to the skaters' training, their daily routine, their hard, exhausting work, their injuries and failures alongside the poetry of overcoming their own bodies in order to express the will of their hearts made his film a real work of art which did not satisfy those who had made the order.
Therefore, intending not to bring the studio into trouble, Sokurov in a short period of time arranged the rest of the material into some sort of publicity film, and this film was presented to the "client" (director's name withdrawn from the titles). Original film was shown to the audience only in the years of Perestroika.