Growing up in West Germany in the sixties/seventies, this was the first Russian movie that I watched and until this day I haven't seen a better one (and I watched quite a few Russian films).Tanya lives with her mother in a small village by the sea. Her father who is married again, moves to the village with his second wife and stepson Kolya. Tanya and Kolya are in the same class at school and fall in love.I watched the film in 1967 and again today. I was trying to find this movie for many years and finally found it on amazon.com by a private seller. It's as wonderful as it was 42 years ago and even if you cannot get it with English subtitles, it's still wonderful to watch. Especially when you know the story.Galina Polskich became a famous Russian actress. This was her first movie. In Germany it was called "Liebe mit 16" (Love with 16). According to TCM she also played in a TV movie called "Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald" which is not listed in Galina's filmography on the IMDb.

Yuly Karasik is ,definitely , not a household name in the West, but in the 60ies he was one of the most promising ( and ,no doubt, talented)film directors in the Soviet Union. " Wild Dog Dingo" is an unpretentious story of first love.What makes it special is the wonderful performance of young actors (G Polskih and V Osobik) and non-professional amateurs (T.Umurzakov as Filka, the only role ever played by that boy) and total absence of Communist ideology, which was so surprising,if not unbelievable, at that time. Galina Polskih (Tanya)was 23 at that time ,and her heroine was only 15!Nevertheless, she played her role very convincingly.Her later years' career had many ups and downs, but the role of Tanya is ,probably,her best. The director is very true to the tiny details of everyday life of the Russians at that time.So,hopefully, those who did not entirely forget their teens'infatuations and first love will enjoy the film , as well as those,who love recent History and are especially interested in life of common people behind the Iron Curtain.Believe me, they also lived and loved , and the ugly totalitarian regime could not kill natural human feelings...