Lisa i zayats (1973)

Clare Kitson in “Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator’s Journey” wrote:
Norstein’s workbook’ [трудовая книжка] (something like a car’s service book, recording developments throughout one’s working life) shows his promotions (and hence pay-rises) progressing at a snail’s pace. Yet in 1972, while still officially a humble ‘animator category 1’, he was commissioned to make his first fully independant film as director. By this time, the unwilling animator had had something of a change of heart and was now passionately aspiring to direct animation – partly out of frustration with some of the bad projects he had been forced to animate but also, interestingly, because his desire to immerse himself in painting had waned. Perhaps animation, at this stage, seemed to demand a lesser degree of personal commitment. Now, in 1972, an Italian producer was co-ordinating a group of European folk tales, and Norstein was nominated to direct the Soviet Union’s contribution, The Fox and the Hare (Лиса и заяц), a tale from Russian folklore, with design oriented towards folk art style. Specific inspiration came, apparently, from the old spinning wheels on display in the ethnographic museum, which not only featured carved images telling traditional tales but even displayed them in successive frames, much like an animation storyboard. Norstein recalls, incidentally, that his design decision provoked violent disagreements with his designer wife – a foretaste of fireworks to come.
It was when Fyodor Khitruk first saw this film that he really understood what an unusual talent the studio was nurturing in the person of Norstein:

We weren’t expecting too much innovation in this film. It was traditional material, of the kind we have been animating since time immemorial… We all knew exactly how you could film that sort of story, and we thought Norstein would do it tastefully, with talent and with some sweet, witty touches…
The young director’s film turned out to be a real surprise – and not only to me. He amazed us. It was strikingly original in form. The film frame was emphasized by the presence of wooden frame, like a window looking into an unknown world. There was a new texture, a new system that made the characters ‘act’… There was no detail in the movement, no smoothness, no delicacy in the gestures. Yet despite this the director managed to create extraordinarily expressive, psychologically accurate characters… He did this firstly by his portrayal of the characters and secondly by the design of the surroundings. The openly decorative and elegantly stylised landscape […] creates the right emotional atmosphere and pulls up into this world born of the artist’s imagination…