A burned soldier walks through Moscow invisible—until his past drags him back from the dead.
Young Chechnya war veteran alienates himself from his friends and family because of his burned face. When he has to help find his war-time friend, he manages to get back to life again.
Acting
Grubov's physical stillness speaks entire monologues.
Cinematography
Moscow's concrete brutalism becomes a character.
Director
Dmitry Tyurin
Mikhail Grubov
Kostya
Roman Kurtsyn
Genka
Sergey Lavygin
Pashka
Aleksey Guskov
Nikolay, Kostya's Father
Galina Bokashevskaya
Kostya's Mother
Anna Banshchikova
Marina, Kostya's Stepmother
Oleg Kulikovich
Eduard Mikhaylovich, Kostya's Stepfather
Svetlana Smirnova-Martsinkevich
Olga
Igor Lyakh
Headmaster Aleksandr Stepanovich
Elena Morozova
Head Teacher Elena Vasilyevna
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of few Russian films addressing Chechen War veterans' neglect by society; released same year as official 'veteran hero' propaganda campaigns.
Director Tyurin cast actual burn survivors as extras in hospital scenes—Kostya's isolation mirrors their real social exclusion.
RU
