Abstract
This article is dedicated to the film Wings (1966) directed by the Soviet director Larisa Shepitko. With its story of a World War II veteran, Nadezhda Stepanovna Petrukhina, Wings makes for an interesting case when looking at women's and veterans' status in the Soviet society of the 1960s, and morality and memory culture, speaking more generally. As Nadezhda Stepanovna is a former fighter pilot who continuously returns to the sky in her daydreams, Wings is also an excellent case for a critical discussion of the meaning of the airspace. Aviation and airspace hold certain connotations in Russian culture (not necessarily excluding other cultures) that open up for a different kind of reading of this film, in particular because of the intersections between gender, space and memory. Hierarchies are often presented through a metaphor of verticality in Russian culture. By examining different notions of verticality, both physical and metaphorical, in Wings, I argue that this film can not only be read in a new way, but also bring new perspectives on the established theory of women's position in Russian culture as morally superior to men. This again can be linked back to the spatial understanding of Russia, as the term Motherland in Russia particularly strongly makes a connection between femininity and motherhood, on the one hand, and space and land, on the other. The main question of this article is what role the airspace and the act of flying play for the identity and self-realisation of the protagonist, Nadezhda Stepanovna Petrukhina, in the film Wings (Shepitko 1966) . The airspace seems to be filled with liberation from society's double standards towards women, and with the opportunity for self-expression, showing strength and competence. This reading is based on a theoretical approach exploring notions of verticality. By advancing the concept of moral vertical, it changes the interpretation of this particular film and adds to the theories of what functions women have in Russian culture.
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