Awards : Prix de la FIPRESCI au Festival de Mannheim-Heidelberg, 1997
Plot synopsis
After graduating from high school during the "stagnation" years of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Aleksei studied at a theater institute, then went abroad, leaving Olga who was in love with him but married his friend Andreï. After sixteen years Aleksei returns to Russia and learns that Andrei is dead and that Olga is in a psychiatric hospital. His father, a former professor of Marxism-Leninism, became a wealthy entrepreneur, profiting from Andrei's death. Aleksei is quickly aware of what has become of his friends, but really understanding the situation is much more difficult...