""A" """ "NA-N-A," ""Anna..." ""K" """ "A" """ "R" """ "A", euh..." """ "E" """ "N-I" """ "N-I-N-A"" ""Anna..." ""Anna Karenina."" ""T" """ "O..."" "The making of this film took me thirteen years." "Many things have changed since then:" "This veranda, on which our family used to get together, and where we spent the summer nights," "this bench, on which our mother used to sit, the alleys she would walked;" "this house, with the aroma of coffee and toasts in the morning;" "this sun-warmed floor on which you, my girl, were running with naked feet, into the room of our mother, darkened by the closed curtains, glided under her quilt, and had a breath of her odor and listened to simple or clear things," "which you would forget right after leaving the room, but eventually, one day, recall." "But that house doesn't exist anymore, neither the balcony on which we had tea parties, nor this bench, neither this dog after which my little daughter would run eagerly," "nor the country, that empire, in which all that took place." "It has also disappeared." "It had everything which an empire required: an emperor," "Volunteers, guards, gladiators, buffoons, guardsmen, merchants, artists, and simple citizens." "It had everything, but no God." "Or rather, there were lots of of small living Gods, but people had no real God inside themselves." "That empire fascinated because of its power and its mystery." "It frightened, but it also attracted." "Hello, my name is David da Silva," "I'm coming to Moscow for the Russian language Olympiad." "I'm from Guinea-Bissau." "My name is Magda, I'm from Hungary." "My name is Tatuya, I'm from Japan." "I'm the only Japanese here." "In reality it was a Godless empire casting its shadow far beyond its borders." "But was it was a naive faith in an enticing though unfeasible dream of universal equality and a paradise on earth?" "Or rather a desire to delude others for own's own benefit, while taking part in a gigantic game?" "The first secretary of the German SUP," "Erich Honecker, was received with cordiality and fraternalism by the representatives of the party and the state." "But empires can't exist without an enemy." "If there is no such enemy, then he has to be invented." "For that particular reason even hockey games can adquire in our subconsciousness a more profound feeling and a different significance." "One doesn't necessarily have to start a war, it's enough to have an enemy, to compete with him, to scare him," "and to smile at him." "A guard of honour was lined up to welcome the distinguished guest." "I don't think that Americans know anything concrete about the individual they're welcoming now." "For them he's simply an image, behind which stands a great potency that has to be feared, and consequently be treated with respect." "The rest of the world is sitting comfortably between those two superpowers." "It made its life easy enough joining now this side, now the other, depending on its current interests." "And if an emperors isn't to one's liking, one can still ask for the support of the other, any kind of support." "... in the Kremlin, the General Secretary of the CC CPSU," "Leonid Ilitch Brejnev." "The Senator introduced his family to him." "Leonid Ilitch has offered Edward Jr." "a photography with his signature." "Try to find the biggest one." " They're not here." " Keep looking." "Pick the biggest carrot." "And if it's a small one?" "That's no problem." "Will I get soaked?" "Hose it down!" "Frankly, at this time, in 1980," "I had no clear idea about which kind of film I would be making, or rather, I certainly felt intuitively, that it might become an interesting document of its time, but I hadn't made up my mind regarding its form." "I had simply decided to shoot one can of film a year, asking my daughter, while she grew up, 5 identical and simple questions." "Back then, in our country censorship had an unlimited power." "No manuscript could be published without consent, hence it was near impossible to make private films with a professional equipment." "Film stock had to be purchased at enormous overpay." "or through other means." "After that we had to process the film in secret, then conserve it." "Those who accepted to work on it took a considerable risk," "But they were loyal friends." "Without them, this film would have never been possible." "Anna, look at me." "Hi!" "Hi!" "Anna, look at me." "Hi!" "Hi!" "How are you?" "Fine." "Why are you smiling?" "I'd like you to answer me a few questions." "Tell me, what is it that scares you most?" "Look at me." " Baba-Yaga." " Who?" " The witch." " What is she like?" "Why are you always smiling?" "Stop playing the fool." "Why are you scared of her?" "Because she has a long nose." "And that frightens you?" "She also has a horrible head." "Tell me, what would you like to have most of all?" "A crocodile." "You want a crocodile?" "A real one?" "Yes." "What is it that you dislike more than anything in the world?" "A soup which is called "bortsch"." "I don't like the bortsch." ""Vassili Ivanovitch Sourikov."" ""Self portrait."" "The walls of our house - decorated with paintings of our forefather, the great paintor Vassili Sourikov, and the grandfather Pjotr Konchalovsky." "The energy and warmth of our mother, Anna's grandmother, protected her for some time from influences of the outside world" "She knew who her ancestors were and it never troubled her." "That didn't just tell her apart from other children of this country, but also from my childhood and my brother's." "Andrei and I grew up with the surname Mikhalkóv, because since high school my father had shifted the stress in his name to pretend that he were not related to the distinguished aristocratic family Mikhálkov." "Nodody suspected back then that a little boy who stuttered since the day his babysitter let the pram with him go downhill, would become the celebrated children's poet Sergey Mikhalkóv, whose verses would be known by all generations of our country." "Some were sitting on the bench, Some were looking down the street." "Tolya whistled, Boris sang." "Kolya just sat there and swung his feet." "It was near the end of the day." "Our friends went for a stroll." "In the sun a puppy lay, On the fence a sparrow sat" "A cat disappeared in the attic." "Boris suddenly asked:" "I've got a key in my pocket." "What do you have?" "We have visitors today." "What do you have?"" "I quickly began to understand that the idea for this film stems inconspicuously and naturally from another film, Oblomov, which I had just completed." "This boy, Ilioucha Oblomov, wakes up in different life, in a different Russia" "The warmth of his house and the love of his family also nutured his childhood." "And I felt the desire to compare those two childhoods, one of a girl from the Soviet Empire and that of a boy from the long-bygone Russian Empire, to find out at which points they diverge, for sure, and to know" "if they converge again." "Even though he went away from his home, and found himself amidst the country's vast expanses," "Ilioucha Oblomov could not lost, because the people he encountered on his way lived -or at least tried to live- according to the same rules as his his very own ancestors." "So, the life of the country, its history - all stemmed from the life and history of each home individually." "Mum has arrived!" "Meanwhile Anna, while outside the walls of this house, immersed herself in a world of swindle and imitation." "The District Council of People's Deputies has requested to register the birth of a new female citizen of the USSR." "Your daughter has been born at a glorious time when mankind's age-old dreams finally come true due to the tireless work of the Soviet people." "Having a child is an honor." "It also means enormous educational work and involves a huge responsibility to society which is depending on you." "We, young pioneers, in presence of the members of the Communist Party and Youth of the entire Soviet Nation pledge, all as one:" ""To follow the line of the Party:" "Always ready!" "To love our Soviet Union:" "Always ready!" "To be a decent generation:" "Always ready!" "To follow the maxims of Lenin:" "Always ready!" "As unseen in history there appeared a new kind of state power, one called upon by the revolution to purge the earth from any form of exploitation, violence and slavery." "Our Socialist Soviet Republic, will stand firm like a beacon, of international socialism and provide an example for all working classes." "And the more majestically in outer public life the empire glorified the Soviet Homeland," "the more precious a private minor homeland became to each person." "That could be a river, a forest, the view from a window." "For my children and me, it was the countryside, and the dusty road that lead to our house." "Today is the 8th of august, 1981." "One year has gone by since we began making this film." "Anna is seven years old." "This year, she begins to go to school." "Anna," "I want to ask you some questions." "Be attentive and answer sincerely." "What is it that you like most?" "Look at me." "Between what?" "In general." "What do you like most?" "At this moment." "Nature." "What?" "Nature." "Nature" "What is it that you dislike most?" "Mean people." "Good." "What is it that scares you most?" "Quarrels." "Quarrels?" "Speak louder." "Quarrels." "What is it that you desire most?" "To be intelligent." "What?" "To be intelligent." "And right now?" "Right now?" "To be knowledgeable." "What?" "To be knowledgeable." "To be knowledgeable?" "That's what you desire most right now?" "And what is it that you love most?" "Answer well." "Answer well?" "That?" "I think what you want most is to take a bath." "I also want that." "Look through the rear-view mirror." "The fear of answering badly." "I know that well." "I'm left-handed and they made me write with the right hand at school." "I remember the fear when making haste, omitting letters and scrawling with the unworked right hand." "Your classmates have already finished and are waiting for you." "The fear to be unlike the others." "It's the fear which pervaded more than any other, since childhood, for all who live in this country." "Lenin, Party, Communist Youth!" "From the Party you borrow enormous tested experience for the entire activity of your organization." "And it's only natural." "Because the Party and the Young Communists have single goal:" "the communism." "Mom gave me a broom lash:" "Never go out with an old man." "The broom got quickly smashed, But my passion didn't end." "They both kept kissing Exultant and ardent," "And never noticed the pants going down." "Our homeland toiled with joy and song" "The wishes of the Party got fulfilled." "This lady from Rostov Came to look at Leo Tolstoy," "And that one from Oryol Went somewhere on her own." "Be she a lady or a saint," "They'd bang her all the same." "Long live the Great Soviet People!" "Long live peace!" "Long live comunism!" "Go to hell!" "Rise, pariahs of the earth!" "Get up, starving legions!" "Make reason march forward:" "it's the end of opression." "The past has to be smashed to smithereens, the legion of slaves will be victorious." "They say that the songs are the soul of a country, but the people never sang those official songs." "And under these roofs, there was another life going on, with other songs that resonated." "And all hoped that the prophetic words of the Party's hymn would come true." "True to my heart's call my heart swears profound loyalty" "to Vladimir I. Lenin," "And to the message we carry." "Shaking off its heavy burden," "Our globe breaks through the dark." "As rivers are originally streams, our history begins with Lenin." "Our waiting is century-old" "And it reflected the might of all bygone uprisings And all Paris Communes' dreams." "Besieged on all sides by doubts that undermined our morals" "and dangers that arised everywhere, but there was a Party on this earth, the one which he created." "The world is ready to vouch for it, to the generations to come." "For Lenin's hand will always lie on our Homeland's pulse." "The deeper and more hopeless became society's decay, the greater grew its demand for enthusiasm." "The signal given to attack, sound!" "Shine, ardent sun, shine!" "Everything is still ahead!" "And Lenin, like our youth, is in the front!" "That was just the time" "when the empire, having mastered all its forces," "tried to parade its potential and grandeur to the world." "The bear, the Soviet Bear, the "red bear" which people used to fear worlwide turned out to be an inflated teddy-bear called" "Misha, the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which, having taken off, began gradually to vanish into infinity." "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the entire Soviet people have sustained a heavy loss." "It has deceased the loyal continuer of Lenin's great cause, the ardent patriot, the outstanding revolutionary fighter for peace and Communism, one of the greatest politicians and men of the contemporary state," "Leonid Ilitch Brejnev." "The Communist Party, our Soviet fatherland," "and countless foreigners mourn his death" "and pay L. I. Brejnev his last homage." "For the first time since Stalin's death, 29 years earlier, the country buried a head of state who died while in office." "I still remember Stalin's death, I was then 8 years old." "One morning, for the first time in my life," "I saw all the mirrors of the house draped in black." "I remember that my father, my brother and I cried." "I remember the classical music over the radio, and the crowds, who on their way to pay him the last homage passed by below our windows." "I remember the reaction of my mother:" "it amazed me." "She was quiet and calm, respectful for compassion's sake, but I didn't see a single tear on her face." "Stalin's death was taken by the entire country as a catastrophy, as the end of the world." "Brejnev's death was taken simply as an end." "Who would become his successor?" "And the country glued its nose at the TV to guess the successor's name, because it could only be someone who was among those present, on the Red Square." "I learned that L. I. Brejnev had died while I was at my workplace." "It came like a bolt from the blue." "I couldn't believe that he had really gone." "That day, watching the dam, the Dniepr, the rocks, it all seemed to mourn together with us." "I think that, after a short while honest historians will start..." "The reaction on Brejnev's death divided people into two categories:" "Those who had been cheated and sincerely believed in what they said," "and those who cheated." "...this man, by tradition, which naturally and subconsciously" "came about among the people, was not simply called Brejnev by us," "but Leonid Ilitch Brejnev." "Tell me, do you know what happened in the country?" "Yes." "What?" "Leonid Ilitch Brejnev is dead." "I've already asked you multiple times these same questions..." "What's it that you want most right now?" "I would like that the Soviet People never forget" "Leonid Ilitch Brejnev." "And what scares you most?" "That a war might break out." "That horrible and unexpected answer implied that the empire had already started to wrest from Anna her own ego." "But back then I didn't pay attention to it." "What is it that you like most?" "I like it when you're at home." "What do you wish for right now?" "The arrival of the New Year's Eve." "New Year's Eve?" "You like that party?" "Very much." "Filling by are the leaders of the Communist Party and the Soviet State," "the members of the commitee of the funeral organization, the family members and friends of the deceased..." "A bit more than a year passed by and the classical music resounded again over the radio." "The country buried Andropov." "When I finished this sequence and sent the film away for processing, someone reported that illegal film material arrived at the laboratory, and that Mikhalkov was making a clandestine film." "For that reason this sequence which is somewhat out of focus couldn't be repeated." "I didn't want to put the people who helped me under risk and thus didn't process another version of that sequence." "I hope that the spectator will excuse my reasoning." "Do you know what has happened?" "Yes." "What?" "Our leader, Leonid..." "Iouri Vladimirovitch Andropov est mort." "Tell me, what did you know about him?" "That he was very active to help people, and that he worked for the promotion of peace." "I know only good things about him." "Tell me, what is is that you like most?" "I like when we all meet up and discuss all matters, debate, when we reveal everything to each other." "What is it that you hate most?" "Disputes in the family." "And the disputes in the entire world." "Why?" "Because out of a dispute can grow a worldwide war." "Where do you come from?" "From Belarus." "And you?" "From Kazakhstan." "I'm from Moscow." "I'm from Irkoutsk." "I come from Georgia, my name is Izouri." "And you, what's your name?" "Ramonia, I come from Lithuania." "And I'm from Siberia." "And what would you desire most today?" "That a good leader will get selected, and that this leader," "Konstantin Oustinovitch Tchernenko, will take good care of us." "Of all people here and across the globe." "Thirteen months have passed." "Again a 3-day national mourning has been announced." "K. Tchernenko held the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the General Secretary of the Party's Central Committee for only thirteen months" "He died at 7:20 a.m. on March 10th." "The Plenum appointed" "M.S. Gorbatchev General Secretary of the central Committee." "Anna, one year has gone by" "since I last filmed you." "Tell me, what is your desire after this time period?" "What would you like most of all?" "That's hard to say." "That peace may reign and that we may be healthy." "That we may be happy." "Even though, of course, today we are sad." "Today happiness has gone." "Is it the end of the world?" "Of hope?" "No, why?" "Then?" "One wants to believe that everything will be fine." "What do you expect from M. S. Gorbatchev?" "That the world may live in peace and that there won't be a nuclear war." "That we shall always live together and that joy will prevail." "Is that possible?" "Yes." "That we may always be happy?" "Yes." "Are you sure?" "I am." "Circle of the sun, the sky around it, it is the picture of a little boy." "He has drawn it on a sheet of paper, he signed it with his hand."" "That was the favorite song of the government." "It was sung by kids, parents, rulers and soldiers." "The louder and merrier the country sang about peace and friendship, the more ominous grew the image of the Afghan war, something almost nobody spoke of openly." "Any reference or hint about the war was enough to cause fury." "This footage is from my picture "The Kins"" "banned from screening for two years, even though it made no reference to the Afghan war." "If the image of recruits was seen as something noble and even essential prior to the Afghan war, in the contemporary context it caused a totally different, inadequate response." "My editor preserved censured footages from this picture which gave me the chance to use them in this film." "This plane air-lifted a nameless, so-called "limited contingent"" "of fighters-internationalists to an unknown war in a foreign country." "On its way back it became well-known as "black tulip", carrying zinc coffins on board which contained dead soldiers." "Nikolaï, Sergueï, Ivan perished for an unknown cause" "They obtained, for the last time, their names in the snow-covered graveyards of Russia." "To some this evil empire of fake equality returned their names at least in graveyards, to others it brought eternal humiliation by crossing out their real names forever." "My Afghan name is Akhmadula Khaï." "But my Soviet name Serguey Vladimirovitch Fateyev." "I come from Kemerovo, Siberia." "My Afghan name is Mohamed Islam." "My Russian name is Victor." "Where are you born?" "I was born in Zhdanov, Ukraine." "My name is Leonid Grigoryevich Vomko." "Here they call me" "Azyzylo." "I was born July 2, 1965 in the Chemlin District, Moldavian SSR." "I wonder how many totally innocent people will see in heavy wartime dreams alien landscapes, alien faces, will hear alien speech and have no explanation as to why they were condemned to all this by their own country." "Today is" "December 31, 1987." "The final day of the year." "I hadn't worked on this film for almost two years, because I was very busy." "I made "Black Eyes", staged "Unfinished Piece" at the Dramatic Theatre in Rome, also with Mastroianni," "and wasn't here." "Tell me, what's it that you like most?" "There's no one answer." "I like a lot of things." "But, most of all?" "I like my parents, I like to sing, to dance, to read, to observe." "What was most interesting that you observed in recent times?" "The birth of my sister." "I was shooting in Italy while Nadja was born in Moscow." "I would like that we all clink glasses" "because my daughter has been born." "Now I have two sons and two daughters." "Did you notice the changes that took place and a difference to how it was before?" "I'm talking about the situation in our country." "What has happened?" "The perestroïka." "Is it clear to all what we undertook to accomplish in the country?" "We all should readjust ourselves - from the CC CPSU Bureau to the last workplace." "Everybody, at his workplace, should work conscientiously." "That's what perestroïka is all about." "One hears it said:" "What is perestroïka?" "Honest work is the main thing about perestroïka." "Thank you all." "It wasn't that difficult, was it?" "Nothing offensive." "No problem." "I don't know what "perestroïka"" "meant to foreigners." "But here it acquired a specific meaning." "To most people it meant an opportunity to turn the covert into the overt." "Most successful were Komsomol leaders who would chorus Le Internationale in the morning, and supply girls to closed party "soirees" in the evening." "With a singular frivolity and great professionalism these guys would provide an ideological basis here." "Listen well, the aim of the contest is to identify talented girls" "able to communicate in different circumstances and capable of unorthodox ways in off-beat situations." "There is a need to develop new examples of conduct in society, at workplaces and recreational institutions." "That is, they should serve as an interesting and worthy example for our Soviet youth to follow." "Things have become far better and also" "far more interesting." "Was there anything particular that improved?" "We had lots of shortcomings in the economy, in politics..." "For example..." "The light industry, for example." "What is it?" "Light industry..." "Light industry means our clothing, for example." "our clothing, for example." "Our clothing was far more substandard than it is now." "Good." "Now it has become far better." "At the perestroïka dawn, in a chilly glass shack, on the Moskva River bank," "Sergey Penkin was celebrating his birthday." "Now he's the famed singer." "But once he worked as a street sweeper and lived in a basement, he sang in one of private restaurants that sprang everywhere in the USSR." "Like many of those present here, he dreamed of TV fame:" "An expensive car, cigars, casino, in one word, all the things that one could see on foreign cassettes." "To many it represented genuine freedom and democracy." "Observance of Penkin's birthday is now a tradition in Moscow." "Just like November demonstrations became traditional 70 years earlier." "Male striptease for the first time in the Soviet Union." "I don't think, in uttering these words, the singer Krylov visualized how close to the truth he would be." "The November 7th Day is no longer marked in this country." "But Penkin's birthday is often aired on Channel One." "So, on stage is" "Sergey Penkin!" "Dear friends!" "I am exited." "Look at all those butts!" "Dear friends, today, foreigners from America arrived for my birthday party." "I'm thankful to them." "They came fro far away, because it interests them." "Let them see how our Soviet youth is having fun." "There are many guests today - musicians, poets, doctors, etc." "I thank you for appreciating not only my art..." "Here are my parents!" "Thank you for coming from distant Penza which is where I myself grew up." "I'm so nervous!" "Many thanks to you, dear friends!" "Not all things could easily be readjusted this way." "Not all can instantly switch over to a new life." "What is our new life all about?" "The future is wearing pink." "Really?" "Yes." "But what does it mean?" "It means that one should live the way one desires." "That is, if one needs something, one can..." "But how do you visualize your future life?" "As I talked to my daughter," "I realized with terrible clarity how faraway from me she was now and how secretive she became about her own life, even to me, her father." "My goodness, I thought." "Is it true that only few years ago, she would smile at me and say she feared Baba-Yaga the Witch hated the bortsch, and wanted to have a crocodile?" "Are you dodging the answer?" "How easily was she deprived of the right to say silly things, and with impunity at that." "The people are again delightfully creating their new idol." "This time he's different from those they had before." "He speaks without notes, communicates with facility, and the whole world respects him, not just for being the leader of a superpower, but as a personality." "The entire country would nestle to TV screens, for what he said was something novel and" "even striking to most people in the USSR." "Was he really sincere about his undertaking?" "I'm sure he was." "Did he anticipate the results of his doings?" "I'm afraid he didn't." "...and to end this meeting," "I'll quote from Pushkin:" ""Live, sun!" "Perish, night!"" "It's so easy to say: "Live, day!" "Perish night and darkness!"" "And how faraway, hard and tormenting and, at times, unreal is the path to this goal." "The world was getting older." "The Ecclesiastes' predictions were coming true." "Cognition multiplied grief." "And the more knowledge people gained, the less joy they derived from it." "CHALLENGER" "THE BOURGET" "IRANIAN FUNDAMENTALISM" "THE FASHION OF J.-P. GAULTIER" "The prelude was lengthy, but the end was quick." "Our session is drawing to a close." "As usual, at times like this, when the Lord's place is vacant in man's soul, there emerges a whole army of false prophets trying to occupy that space." "They induce, conjure, urge, thereby shaking the already unsteady minds, filling them with greater horrors and uncertainties." "TSCHERNOBYL" "And to the devastating energy of human malice, irresponsibility and cruelty, divine nature responds with self-destruction." "EARTHQUAKE IN ARMENIA" "Now it's all over - such is my imperative." "Nothing must be distorted or overdone." "All over, the eyes closed, no excesses at all." "All are alert, able to move well, no dizziness." "Today is December 29," "1988." "This year has been very painful, it was the Year of the Dragon." "Various grave events happened, and unfortunately, sad ones, painful ones," "and even tragical ones... not just for all residents of the globe but most of all for individual families in Armenia, because of the earthquake," "and for our family, as well." "The joy of my elder son's homecoming from his 3-year service in the navy was overshadowed by a painful event for our family." "the death of my mother, Natalia Petrovna Kontchalovskaïa, around which revolved her" "children and grandchildren, wifes - ex and new - and friends." "Everything seemed blessed by her talent and light." "Needless to say, it was a an immense loss for our family." "Whenever I left this place to go to the studio or on a distant trip." "I invariably asked for Mamma's blessing." "I sort of feared she would perhaps pass away while I was" "far away, and wouldn't be able to see her again." "She used to pull curtains over the windows, and if I departed early in the morning - this was normal, meaning she was asleep." "But if, say, after 9 the house was locked and the curtains pulled," "I was always fearful of coming back with her no more." "I was on a trip when she died." "She was 84 then." "These parts were cleared daily in winter and swept clear in autumn, for she used to walk there." "She daily went on a walk, just to feel alive." "In her last years she lived only here, and rarely went to Moscow." "The entire family didn't get together as often as before." "But on December 31 we all met up for New Year celebrations." "From my childhood I still remember this sweet anticipation of the coming New Year." "When the Christmas Tree was dressed up and sparkling." "Preparations for the feast started early in the morning." "The fragrance of conifer." "I remember the scent of mothballs from a cotton Santa Claus." "Afterwards all went to sleep so as to be up at 10 and welcome guests, who came with noise, hubbub, right from the frosty air." "Laden with presents, they invaded the house with shouts, laughter, jokes, hugs." "As for you, you were urged to go to sleep, for at 11 sharp you had to be in bed." "I hated this moment." "I would take along conifer needles to prick myself to keep awake." "And yet, I fell asleep and in my half-dream I heard someone else arriving and then singing, guitar playing, and Mom's laughter." "But then, getting up in the morning you found a huge table resembling Pompeii after the Vesuvius eruption." "Everything was messed up - snacks, desserts, unfinished glasses of wine, and even cigarette smoke looming." "My childish desire to celebrate" "New Year with the adults was so great that I'll remember it for the rest of my life." "This also explains why I allowed our children to celebrate New year together with us." "And now... what is it that Anna fears most." "I fear a war." "And in the light of our present grief, I fear the death of close ones, for grandma died this year." "That was the first death in the family I experienced." "It was horrendous." "And what do you love most?" "My family." "I love when they're all together here." "That's good." "Artyom, and you?" "What do you fear most?" "Also, I fear a war." "Don't go." "I won't go." "I'll stay with you." "Will winter come back?" "Yes." "I'm not asleep." "As I recalled Mamma before the icon, a kind of prayer took shape as though by itself:" "Help, o Lord, towards forsaking of sins and rest the soul of your slave Natalia, and help, o Lord, before her all-seeing and unseeing eyes and before the all-seeing and unseeing eyes of my ancestors resting here," "and Orthodox faithfuls elsewhere." "Render our home clear of disgrace, disintegration, squabbles and malice, hatred, offences, insults, envy, division." "Instead, may all follow the road paved by her and blessed by Your divine radiance." "Amen." "In real life, every person has two alternatives." "One can either speak out or keep mum." "One can watch tanks from the window, and one can do otherwise, like that Chinese man in Tiananmen Square." "one can also confront them and block their way." "Much indeed depends on the human magnitude of the person who makes a decision." "Does he think solely of this precise moment, or also of the fact how his conduct may affect his subsequent life of those living next door and those coming after him?" "The spring of history kept compressing." "The empire fell apart." "The slogans shed their goal." "Only direction stayed." "AHEAD YOU SEE THE C..." "The world changed as a landscape changes after an earthquake." "The Berlin Wall, a symbol of world division, crumbled down." "So did socialist traditions, values, habits, and idols, too." "The crowd, almost unconsciously relying on an instinct which had been cultivated over the decades, dragged in new idols to pledge allegiance to them." "Returned from exile was Sakharov, a very dangerous dissident." "But this fleeting moment between his return and his death came like a meteorite flash." "Surely, Gorbachev was and remains a veritable author of these changes in history." "But the higher and more rapidly rose his prestige around the world," "the lower and more rapidly did he fall in his own country." "RETIRE!" "The crowd, cultivated on lies over the decades and compelled to worship an idol it itself forged, delightfully grasped the freedom given by this idol, in order to publicly trample him underfoot." "And while some defended their idol and others vituperated him" "the people patiently awaited the time when they would be given an opportunity to tranquilly live and work in order to provide for both warring sides." "My heroine is turning 16 today." "Anna is 16 yeard old." "Hi." "When did we start shooting this picture?" "A decade ago, as far as I remember." "Previously, you did it fearlessly, but now..." "Why?" "Did you develop complexes?" "What complexes?" "I don't know." "Previously I didn't ponder on what to say." "Now I have to think first." "And how do you answer the following question:" "What do you fear most?" "Now I can no longer say that I fear war." "You no longer fear war." "Not any more." "Rings out in Peace street a clarion call." "For rising in peace fight by big folks and small." "Where are you from?" "From Belarus." "And you?" "From Kazakhstan." " I come from Moscow." " I'm from Irkutsk." "My name is Lizuri." "I come from Tbilisi." "And I've come from Siberia." "Despite all this effort and glorious din," "The peace in the Peace street is not to be seen." " You want to have kids?" " Sure." "I never pondered it before." "Now it's a very serious problem for me, because I imagine it involves lots of chores and much responsibility." "As I started shooting this picture, I sought to locate the point where these two childhoods diverge - little Ilya Oblomov in one empire and a little girl," "Anna, in the other." "And I realized that they were divided by faith and the abscence of God." "Indeed, our possibilities have grown immeasurably." "And our knowledge has become far greater." "But just as well we realize that godlessness has turned our possibilities and our knowledge into something destructive." "We've lost respect for life and death." "We've turned our life into TV serials, and death into a computer game, and booty into ruin." "Let's say a prayer, Ilya." "Follow me." "O Lord, Father Almighty, take mercy on me." "By the great grace of Yours, protect me, o Lord..." "Ladies and gentlemen, friends, comrades!" "As you've already learned from the mass media, in view of impossibility - on account of health - to perform his duties, Michail Gorbachev..." "Y- e-I-t-s-i-n!" "The Communion is given to God's slave..." "This is the building of Russia's Supreme Soviet." "You see familiar individuals engaged in a live broadcast for people crowding around the White House." "These are Victor Yaroshenko, Nikita Mikhalkov," "Alexander Lyubimov, Alexander Politkovsky." "Lots of people visited this place today." "They include cultural personalities, artists who expressed their views concerning the events of the past two days." "Mr. Mikhalkov, What did you tell the people crowding around this building?" "I tried to point out that those who know me are well aware that I never upheld extreme views, right or left." "I never addressed rallies and feel that everyone should do his job at his place." "History is ruined, as is culture and millions of people were destroyed for ideological symbols, which aren't worth a single child's life." "Aucune idée ne vaut la vie d'un enfant." "I'm here today because I believe:" "Order must be brought about." "But by who and how?" "This is a serious issue." "There is a government elected by the people." "This is an all-people's government." "There is the President..." "My attitude towards Yeltsin is diverse for a number of different reasons." "But we've got to decide now:" "Shall we allow to be treated and dominated from the positions of strength, as it happened in those earlier years?" "There were three people who perished in August 1991." "Thousands upon thousands of Muscovites displayed heroism and staunchness." "They alone stopped reactionary onslaught." "Last night most heads of state thanked all people of Russia and Russia herself for the fact that" "Russia has saved democracy, the Union, and peace." "These Russian people really saved the Union." "But what for?" "To demolish it with their own hands 3 months later?" "Dear compatriots, fellow citizens," "in view of the formation of the Community" "of Independent States," "I terminate my work at the post of" "USSR President." "I stood for autonomy and independence." "I upheld the people's sovereignty and I also stood for the country's integrity..." "For the first time the now ex-president wasn't offered a cup of tea, for by Bolshevist tradition he was a nobody already." "Too often do we forget a simple and old wisdom:" "Treat people the way you want to be treated." "The perestroïka era was over and democracy was in." "But just like perestroïka, the Russians interpreted democracy in a rather odd way." "Remember a visit to Penkin" "in his "glass shack"?" "Now his birthday party is aired on Channel One." "He even sings in the Kremlin from time to time." "Je pense qu'il faut faire plus de soirées, de bals, comme au temps de Pouchkine," "I think we've got to hold more soirees and balls like in Pushkin's times when people reciprocated." "visits to balls held at their homes." "You also remember Sergey Krylov?" "Now he can address all mankind from TV screen." "Residents of the planet Earth!" "Life is marvelous, nevertheless!" "The time has come when human dignity became dormant in people and the sense of honour is erased, when for money one can sell one's officer's straps and buy other's decorations, when the notions of sin and shame vanish completely." "In Russia, such times are called troubled times." "The resulting void is filled with something that historically or culturally has never been and never will be natural and normal to us." "This is my song." "Nobody can sing the way he does." "Jesus always listens to you." "Tell him all you need to tell." "These women are crawling to the place where stood a church blown down by the Bolsheviks." "They kiss the trees that witnessed the life and the destruction of the church." "It seems cheaper simply to invite foreign preachers who - through interpreter - on TV or at the stadium undertake to instruct godless people how to keep faith." "Everything is fine, even with no food around..." "I am talking about the Lord who provides for you and does everything good." "Raise your hands!" "Pray to God!" "He's the one who says:" ""All will be good!"" "This little boy fails to comprehend what takes place around him." "But eventually, he or, more likely, his children will come to this place to see this magnificent temple erected by their toil." "Today is September 5, 1991." "Right here after many years," "I continue to shoot my film." "My daughter Anna has turned 17." "She plans to study in Switzerland for two years." "You remember this place?" "Sure." "What do you fear most?" "One thing, in earnest." "Personally, I fear to lose my inner world." "I seem to have a very good foundation." "Maybe now I've come to realize one thing:" "My homeland, perhaps, is my only possession." "That is, something which can be lost within a minute." "Why?" "Because it's impossible to predict what's going to happen with our country, so there's a danger of losing whatever we have - a kind of inner pivot which is ever present..." "What is Homeland for you?" "Something big and very beautiful." "I don't know." "And yet, what's it?" "Something to be treated with trust and love." "But what exactly is it for you?" "Remember I took you and Artyom here to look at Homeland?" "So what does it mean to you?" "It is associated with the countryside, I'd say..." " The countryside?" " Yes, and that forest." " Where do you want to live?" " Here, of course." "Why?" "Because I can't imagine myself without this." "Without what?" "More concretely?" "Lots of temptations are in store for you in Switzerland." "Don't you think this may alter your attitude?" "No, never in my life." "Because all countries are alike." "Isn't there any difference?" "We're different in the sense things are worse in our country, right?" "No, it's better here." "Children from any country, of any nationality, generally cry for the same reasons." "And each child can be easily soothed by giving him a candy, or by telling a fairytale." "But what's it that made Anna cry?" "After all she's 17 already and affluent enough to talk about her country." "I wonder if Ilya Oblomov, a 17-year-old lad," "would break into tears while talking about his Russian homeland?" "I think he would." "Because the godlessness that divided these two Russians couldn't shatter the all-embracing and truly passionate love whose force and purity make it known worldwide as the mysterious Russian soul." "Okay, go ahead." "That's it." "A whole period in our family's life is over." "The same applies to the life of our hapless great country, which is no longer the Soviet Union." "Hopefully it will be a great Russia." "But I don't want to end my picture right here, although the serial is completed, I think." "I will try to continue it." "Should God give me strength and health, and if peace and accord prevail, in 13 years maybe I'll show you" "a sequel of this film." "Over there, out in the fields, stands my new heroine." "Nadya, my dear, tell me what do you love most?" "I love beauty." " What?" " Beauty." "And what do you fear most?" "I fear..." "I fear..." "I fear to go to school." "You're afraid to go to school?" "And tell me," "What is Homeland for you?" "It is something beautiful." "And how is it?" "Huge?" "No, small." "Small?" "How small?" "Show me." "And it's all yours?" "Every human being, every citizen, every country, all have their unique and inimitable path which they should walk on without prompting and violence, but in a calm and dignified manner." "Not envying those who have already reached their destination, but instead trying to help those who are lagging behind." "May God bless you, Anna..."