Forgotten Melody for a Flute (Russian: Забытая мелодия для флейты, romanized: Zabytaya melodiya dlya fleyty) is a 1987 Soviet romantic comedy-drama film directed by Eldar Ryazanov.

[1] A high-ranking bureaucrat, torn between ambition and newfound love, faces a life-altering crisis that forces him to confront his own hypocrisy and the emptiness of his privileged existence.

Leonid Filimonov, a senior bureaucrat in the "Main Directorate of Free Time," is a man who constantly wrestles with his own duality, presenting himself as a liberal and supportive overseer of various arts and cultural groups while, in reality, routinely banning anything that hints at dissent.

Lida, unimpressed by his privilege and insincerity, awakens in Filimonov a nostalgia for his youth as an idealistic musician, rekindling his buried desires for authenticity and love.

Seeking refuge, he moves in with Lida temporarily, though his deep-rooted tendency for dishonesty strains their relationship and jeopardizes his career ambitions as his separation from his influential wife threatens his upward trajectory.