One lie about moving to paradise, and this sad sack's life actually gets worse. Gloriously.
In this gentle comedy, an unpopular resident in a Russian village has his life completely changed when he announces, entirely on a whim and just to upset things a bit, that he's moving to the Pacific coast.
Acting
Zhigalov's magnificent human doormat energy.
Direction
Dostal finds poetry in concrete panel apartments.
Writing
Every lie spirals with cruel, inevitable logic.
Director
Nikolay Dostal
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during perestroika's collapse, the film captures Soviet malaise where escape fantasies replaced political hope. The 'Pacific coast' specifically evokes Vladivostok as mythical elsewhere.
Dostal cast actual residents of the filming location; the apartment building was slated for demolition, giving every scene accidental documentary weight.
SU
