Before Dinner

The film tells about two elderly widows who live in the same house. They are united not only by tragedy, but also by common concern, namely the grave of two unknown soldiers, which they have been guarding for over 30 years. And suddenly the managers of their district decide to turn the grave into a memorial.

The film tells about the misadventures of an ordinary person who happened to have a suitcase with a lot of money... It turns out that it is not at all easy to find a worthy use for such money, and in the final it turns out a simple truth — “happiness is not in money ...”

Follows the tragic pages of our history, when the so-called “special meeting”, consisting of three people, passed harsh sentences on innocent people.

Film-play of the Central Academic Theatre of the Russian Army based on A.N. Ostrovsky's play. In a wealthy merchant's house, young beauty Vera Filippovna languishes like a bird in a cage. At the age of 15, she married the rich man Karkunov. Vera Filippovna never loved her husband, but, being a decent young woman, she was a faithful wife to him. Suddenly, the old man, her husband, is about to die and cannot decide whom to leave his fortune to — his wife, his nephew, or perhaps give it all to the poor. The action revolves around this money...

This play is one of the repertory plays of Russian theater – in the first year of production (1878) it was on the stage of seventy provincial theaters. The main interest of the audience was the triangular relationship conceived according to the plot as the basis of a dramatic intrigue.