East & West: Paradises Lost

Ivan is old Russia: thick, dour, hard-working, often brutish; he misses Communism. He drives a taxi and one night meets Alexi, a new Russian, a musician, an alcoholic, irresponsible. Alexi stiffs Ivan for the fare, so Ivan tracks him down and a love-hate relationship ensues. When Alexi lets the bath water run over in Ivan's flat and Ivan must pay 500 rubles for repairs, he tries to force Alexi into day labor to repay him. It's hopeless. Then, suddenly, Alexi is discovered, goes on a jazz tour of America, becomes a celebrity, and returns in triumph. Ivan longs to renew the friendship, and it looks as if he may get what he wants.

Tolla is an unemployed translator whose wife is leaving him. Despondent and weak, he submits to the suggestion of an acquaintance to have a contract placed on the man that his wife is seeing. Instead, however, he arranges for the hit to be placed on himself. Before the contract is executed, he develops a relationship with a prostitute, and then changes his mind. In order to survive he takes the obvious course of action, which turns out to have possibly been unnecessary, and then he must deal with the guilt.

The drama of a former noblewoman who became the wife of an NKVD officer in the 1930s, and the almost anecdotal story of how a spirited stallion was prepared for Marshal Budyonny's parade and, in the end, a reliable mare was "slipped in" instead. The realities of life at the top of the State Security Service are shown, their ordinary and "sweet" life with its joys, intrigues, betrayals, and tragedies. Russia is like a whirlpool that sucks in and destroys.