The year is 1917. We are in the Russian countryside. It is the middle of freezing winter. A pale young, newly educated doctor arrives. Having to deal with one medical challenge after another he soon becomes the center of everyone's attention. To soothe the impressions of human suffering he turns to morphine.
Acting
Bichevin's physical deterioration is genuinely disturbing.
Cinematography
White-out snowscapes that swallow hope whole.
Direction
Balabanov's pitiless gaze—no redemption, no mercy.
Director
Aleksei Balabanov
Leonid Bichevin
Doctor Mikhail Alekseyevich Polyakov
Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
Anna Nikolayevna
Andrei Panin
Medical Assistant Anatoliy Lukich Demiyanenko
Svetlana Pismichenko
Pelageya Ivanovna
Katarina Radivojević
Ekaterina Karlovna
Aleksandr Mosin
Vlas
Irina Rakshina
Aksinya
Sergey Garmash
Vasily Osipovich Soborevsky
Valeriy Zaytsev
general
Daniil Shigapov
clerk
Elena Andreeva
Lidka's mother
Lidiya Dorotenko
barefoot woman without skirt
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Mikhail Bulgakov's autobiographical stories; Balabanov filmed during actual Russian winters with minimal heating for authenticity.
Released the same year as Balabanov's death, this is considered his unflinching farewell to Russia's romanticized past—no heroes, only survivors and casualties.
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