What if your last hope was a lie you told yourself?
A successful businessman accidentally learns about his wife's betrayal with his best friend. Overnight, he loses both his friend and wife. In a fit of despair leaves for the city of his first love. Once in a random prostitute, he recognizes his daughter, who was born without him in a distant city. But it is not so easy to find happiness. And is it a daughter?
Acting
Simonov's unraveling is physically painful to watch.
Direction
Mokrushev lets silence do the screaming.
Director
Maxim Mokrushev
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Post-Soviet Russian cinema of this era loved punishing male protagonists with ironic fate—call it the 'Eastern European shrug.'
The casting of Arntgolts (then 25, playing ambiguous age) deliberately blurs the daughter/lover boundary the protagonist fears.
US
