"#" "Time and space are not homogeneous." "In the life of every civilization, every country, every nation and every person there are special places and special points of time - unusually important, crucial points." "In my life this special moment, which I'll never forget, happened in Moscow, Russia, in the spring of 1992, right after the fall of Communism." "I came back to my native town after 17 years of forced separation." "Moscow was in turmoil, so was I." "Allow me to introduce myself:" "Alexander Greenberg." "That spring I was turning 50 - time to gather stones." "And it just so happened that at an International Congress on the "structure of the universe"" "was taking place in Moscow at the moment." "I am an astrophysicist, so are most of the people important for me." "My entire tiny little world was getting together in the city of my youth." "So I've decided to come to the city to face my past and to reevaluate my life." "At the point it seemed to be a sound idea." "I was eager to reevaluate." "Reevaluate everything." "Not only my own life but also life of all the other beings populating our planet." "After lunch we will begin our regular sessions, but right now, before we take a break, we would like to show you a short film." "This film is not a scientific film, but it does include some footage of our space research, as well as some visual references abstracted from the works of numerous astrophysicists." "May we have the shades drawn, please." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Let me introduce to you the main characters of our story." "That woman who keeps looking my way is Helen." "She is my wife." "Or, if you prefer, ex-wife." "In any event, she is always threatening to leave me." "I need a life." "I need a real life before I am too old." "What's so bad about our life?" "You call this a life?" "Right!" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "And sometimes she does leave, for a time." "But it looks like she still cares for me." "My drinking seems to worry her." "Well, she had never seen me drinking so much before." "The creator of the film you are about to see," "Jill Stratton, is with us today." "Do you see the beautiful lady standing by the camera?" "That is miss Stratton herself." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" ""The beautiful lady standing by the camera" is my lover, Jill." "Not that we're really lovers." "Not now, anyway." "Sasha, what's the matter?" "I don't understand." "Don't you?" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "And that is Natasha." "In a way, she is also my lover." "Ex." "Go." "Leave Russia." "Your place is out there." "What about you?" "What about me?" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Even though we are very old friends, our intimate relationship was brief." "As for the past seventeen years, we not only haven't seen each other, but have not even corresponded." "But I didn't correspond with anyone in Russia." "While the room is being engulfed by darkness," "I would like to read a brief passage from John Milton's "Paradise Lost"." "In this passage, the angel Raphael is speaking to Adam and Eve." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "The imposing gentleman at the podium, is my professor, Doctor Gross." "I have not seen Henrich Gross for the past 17 years either." ""..." "To ask or search I blame thee not;" "for Heaven Is as the Book of God before thee set," "Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years." "the rest from Man or Angel the great Architect" "Did wisely to conceal, to move His laughter at their quaint opinions wide Hereafter, when they come to model Heaven, And calculate the stars."" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "I remember one of my last meetings with Gross before I left Russia." "Continue your cosmological research for God, and make the bomb - for Caesar." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Well for the last seventeen years both of us each in the country of his choice kept calculating the stars for God and building bombs for the Caesars of our choice." "In the past two decades, a microscopic flash of time, we have been able to reveal so many secrets of the Great Architect that we cannot look at footage reflecting the results of this change without utter fascination." "It is debatable how long the Great Architect can continue to conceal his secrets." "If we may remind him of the old saying: "He who laughs last laughs longest."" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "As in the old days Gross was challenging God himself." "I must admit, I was surprised to see how little he has changed." "Perhaps he has discovered the fountain of youth." "The city beyond the windows is my city, although until the commencement of our story" "I have been away from it for seventeen years." "I was born in this city, and I lived here for many years." "It is a living entity to me, so I hope you are not surprised that I introduce it as one of the characters of this film." "And this is my planet" " Earth." "On the grand astrophysical scale, a place just as small and cozy as one's home town." "Earth is also one of our characters." "Ah, Home, Sweet Home." "One does not choose one's homeland." "Our Universe." "The way we "model heaven and calculate the stars" on our computers." "I have spent my whole life trying to understand what limits there are, and what lies beyond them." "Striving to break through the Iron Curtain hung by God Himself." "Why did you walk out on my film?" "I have seen it many times before." "Why did you walk out on your own film?" "I have seen it too." "You're trying to escape so you can keep getting drunk?" "You promised to come help me at the studio." "But you're shooting." "I'm done for the day." "Wait here, I'll tell Lynn to pack up alone." "Sasha?" "Sasha Greenberg?" "Oh, you don't recognize me!" "It's me" " Kostya Ruemin!" "Remember?" "It's a shame to forget your friends!" "Let's get together!" "My wife will make a good dinner." "We'll have a good time." "Excuse me." "I am sorry." "We haven't been introduced, but I know who you are." "I need to discuss something with you." "My name is Victor Krymsky." "They're all are over him." "I'm afraid he's going to drink himself into oblivion, and his speech is tomorrow." "It's wonderful" "Sasha, how's tomorrow?" "He said he'd come to the studio with me." "To help me negotiate to the Head of production." "OK, if he's with you, he'll be fine." "Okay, Sasha, let's go." "Hello." "My name is Victor Krymsky." "I have a business proposal to discuss with Mister Greenberg." "Sasha!" "I heard you were here." "I just dropped everything and here I am!" "That's great!" "That's great!" "Don't forget." "Tomorrow!" "Sasha, we really have to go." "We'll miss the Head of production." "I'm the president of cooperative"Knowledge"." "Do you have a car?" "I'll drive you." "We would like to discuss the possibility of working with you." "Excuse me, mister Greenberg is going to a very important meeting right now." "Sasha, How's tomorrow?" "I'm Lomova!" "Asya Lomova!" "Could I really have aged so much?" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "This is my second day in Moscow." "So far, I haven't managed to sleep a wink, or to have a single moment to myself." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Helen and I were met at the airport by my old friends Tolik and Natasha, and, also, Jill." "Jill was already deep into her new environmental documentary project, so she came to Moscow earlier than last week in search of footage and co-producers." "The whole gang is so excited!" "Greenberg is coming!" "He was the first we knew who emigrated, and now he is the first who came back." "Hard to believe it is really happening." "It seems as if all of Moscow has nothing else to talk about." "Natasha was the prettiest girl in the entire physics department so, obviously, everybody gravitated towards her." "Every holiday we would gather at her parents' house." "Each of us fell in love with her, more or less." "Oh, It's rare for a woman to be studying physics." "Especially one like you..." "It was the same at Harvard." "My parents are still alive, they remember you." "They want to have a party Wednesday for the whole gang in honor of your visit." "Like old times." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "When I left Moscow 17 years before this moment" "I had no inkling or even hope that I would come back here for a visit." "Back then for the first time in decades, a door had been cracked open in the Soviet Union's Iron Curtain." "Of all the soviet citizens some Jews were allowed to leave the country to supposedly to unite with their families in Israel." "And everybody knew if you were lucky and could leave, you'd become "an emigrant" to those left behind." "Officially this word sounded like "An enemy of Russia"." "You would never be able to see your birthplace and your friends again." "But recently, under "Perestroika" (Restructuring) my friends were permitted again to consider me their friend." "(PHONE RINGS)" "Hello." "It's for you." "You've been traced, already." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "The following day consisted of three dinners and four suppers." "Everybody wanted to see the man returned from beyond." "From where no one they knew had ever returned before." "They wanted to see but strangely enough not to hear." "They were no longer interested in the outside world." "Too many things were happening in their own." "They just elected the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin and said good-bye to the father of "Perestroika"" "the president of disintegrated USSR Mikhail Gorbachev." "Did you vote for Yeltsin?" "Yes..." "How could you?" "!" "Just wait till you've made him a dictator, he'll show you." "You have a better alternative?" "You fear there may be a civil war." "Well, it's already here." "Gorbachev was the greatest leader of our time!" "Look at what he's done in Eastern Europe!" "Gorbachev is the same as the rest, only weaker!" "He couldn't revive the economy, he couldn't give freedom to the republics!" "Gorbachev is a man of compromise, a politician without principle." "He cannot be trusted." "I don't know why Americans are so fond of him!" "Americans consider compromise a virtue." "Anyway imagine if Gorbachev went ahead with his reforms without compromise, and we'd have chaos." "It seems to me we are on the verge of a collapse." "Perestroika is dead!" "Perestroika has just begun." "Perestroika never had a chance." "No one knows how to work anymore." "Lazy, spoiled slaves, all of them!" "Master." "All day I waited for your call - it never came." "Tried calling" " No answer." "If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed will come to the mountain." "Give me a hug." "Ahh." "What's this?" "(PHONE RINGS)" "Couldn't we just unplug it?" "No, you're not in America." "Telephones do not unplug here." "That would create too much difficulty for those listening in." "So, disciple?" "Do you think you've won our argument?" "Do you think the time has come for the rats to return from "unexplored space"?" "They certainly think so and they get so exited." "A human person has broken an "iron curtain" twice." "Fourth and back!" "This is an event." "And, it is morning, and it is officially your birthday." "Congratulations." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Gross was not your average Soviet physicist." "He had come from America." "He had participated in the creation of the nuclear bomb." "America dropped this bomb on the Japanese." "It was the age of McCarthyism Gross did not wish to serve the imperialist war mongers." "In 1948 he escaped to a "free country" - the Soviet Union." "The "free country" at that time had twenty million of its citizens imprisoned in labor camps." "Gross managed to avoid the labor camp only because the "free country"" "desperately needed those who knew how to build bombs." "Of course, physicists did not defect from the Soviet Union." "The borders of the "free country" were well guarded." "After six months in the Soviet Union, Gross married his housekeeper - a virtually illiterate country woman." "His colleagues were shocked by the marriage." "But Gross lived with her for many years and always seemed perfectly satisfied with the union." "Good coffee demands precise preparation." "If, for example, you grind it electrically instead of manually, you will never achieve the proper aroma." "Diogenes lived in a barrel." "Why should one care where one lives!" "I am convinced, however, that in his life there were certain elements of perfection." "Perhaps he prepared an ideal coffee, or drank the best wine." "To attain knowledge, one does not need to live in a palace." "One should, however, periodically measure the quality of one's thought process against other paradigms of quality." "Master, I've come to share a secret." "I have applied for emigration." "Psychologists at Harvard once conducted an experiment." "They took some rats and placed them in a labyrinth with tunnels leading to various rooms." "These rooms contained everything essential to rat happiness." "There were rooms with food, rooms for sex." "One of the tunnels led to a so-called "unexplored space"." "The rats had no way of knowing what lay beyond this opening, since no rat ever returned from there." "Still, fifteen percent of the rats would inevitably go into the "unexplored space"." "They were terrified of it." "They shook with fear." "Their fur would stand on end, they would experience uncontrollable urine releases, they would howl - but, still, they would go." "As it turns out both you and I belong to this fifteen percent." "Except that in our case the Great Experimenter has exercised his sophisticated sense of humor and placed two labyrinths side by side, calling the door connecting them "unexplored space".." "It so happens that the presence of rats from "unexplored space"" "does not change the magical number of fifteen percent and what we end up with is a perpetual exchange of urine-releasing bravadoes..." "So,if they let you go, we will never see each other again?" "Who can tell." "Maybe you could visit me there." "Or I could come here." "I think not." "Rats do not return from "unexplored space"." "That's one of the givens of the experiment." "Otherwise, how "unexplored" would it be?" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Had it turned out that Gross was wrong?" "Was I really now back in Moscow?" "Was I really going in the car with my girl friend Jill to the State Film Studio to help her to negotiate with the Head of the Production, desperately desiring to get somewhere a sip of vodka, something that in Moscow I left 17 years ago" "was in such abundance as water in the ocean?" "What's the matter?" "What does all this madness about vodka mean?" "Gorbachev started a war against Russian traditional alcoholism and now there is something which looks like limited prohibition." "I have with me a famous American physicist." "Good for Russians and bad for me." "You should have called this morning, we could have got you a table." "We can't do anything just now." "We take reservations ten days in advance." "I wish he'd take us to the Studio already, and disappear." "My friend!" "The American doesn't wish to have a table at all." "All he wants is a bottle of vodka." "And he's willing to pay ten times your price." "Well, that's normal." "That's what everyone pays." "It's funny." "When I used to live here everybody couldn't manage without drinking but me." "Now I am back and desperately need a drink, there's a vodka shortage." "There you are." "You can get anything in Moscow, it just takes know-how." "Our organization is called "Success"" "and in our joint venture, we are guaranteed success." "But I am not a businessman." "We'll put together a group of Soviet scientists who'll generate scientific ideas for sale and develop ideas generated by American clients." "We'll make lots of hard currency." "Excuse me." "Aren't we going to the studio?" "The Head of production is expecting me there." "He'll wait." "His studio is not a private company like mine." "It's a government agency - no one does any work there anyway." "#" "They say our studio is not up to world's standards in terms of equipment." "That is not so." "Right now, for example, we're shooting ten films simultaneously." "Take a look at this!" "#" "I'm so pleased you've come to help your girl-friend, but, as you can see, it is not an interpreter she needs." "I know enough English for that." "It is a more delicate matter, She wants to do a co-production." "Okay." "Great." "I'm all for a co-production." "She needs some specific documentary material." "Fine." "We'll get it for her, but not all of it." "But something." "But now she's asking to see our copyright to this material." "What copyright?" "I talked to every attorney in Moscow - no one knows whether we have this copyright or not." "What's a copyright anyway?" "Don't take it personal, but it's so difficult to work with Americans!" "#" "Sex and Jews are our two most popular subjects today." "Everyone wants to film what used to be forbidden." "These Jewish looking actors never used to have any work - now they're all hot property." "Everyone of them is under three or four contracts at once." "They're the envy of all other actors." "Unfortunately, I have to tell you that there is no mistake in our lists." "You have not been accepted to the Physics/Math Department." "But isn't there a law that says everyone graduating high school with a gold medal must be accepted without entrance examinations?" "Why wasn't I accepted?" "Because I am a Jew?" "Have enough courage to tell me the truth!" "Sit down." "You snotnose!" "I am not the least bit afraid to tell you that you weren't accepted because you're a Jew." "Because we have twice as many applicants like you" " Jews with gold medals - than there are spots available at the University!" "And even if I followed the law and turned this institution one hundred percent Jewish, there would still be no place for you, personally." "I am prepared to take the examinations along with the other applicants." "That I cannot forbid you to do." "May I answer right away, without preparation?" "Are you sure you do not want to think over your answer first?" "I got lucky." "I pulled my favorite question." "Well, what is that question?" "The modern concept of the structure of the Universe." "All right, then." "Let's hear what you know about this." "The modern concept of the structure of the Universe is based upon Einstein's general theory of relativity." "In 1917, the same year that the Great October Revolution took place in our own country, another revolution also took place." "Einstein claimed that all three of the space Dimensions were curved and that a spaceship travelling in the same direction for a long enough period of time would return to its point of origin." "In 1922, the Soviet mathematician Alexander Friedman offered another model." "In his model, the Universe expands." "Expansion began at a point." "All of of today's models allow for an expanding Universe." "Although I must add that not all scientists are pleased with this." "I am not sure I like it either." "The idea of the Universe appearing from nothing and perishing into collapse is somewhat unnerving to me." "How is it possible?" "Did the Universe begin at the point?" "Did matter evolve from nothing?" "What was there before the creation of the Universe?" "Do you know, young man, that that particular question has already been answered?" "Long before the birth of Albert Einstein." "No, I didn't." "By whom?" "By St. Augustine." "And what, in his opinion, was there before the creation of the Universe?" "In his opinion, before the creation of the Universe there was already a hell for those asking such questions." "But you are a world-renowned physicist." "So what?" "There are no positions available at the University for head of project." "Shiffman will not have me." "He has already let too many Jews into his school, he's a Jew himself, he's afraid to let anyone else in." "Logov has never let Jews in and is not about to start now and Sarkisian is far too poor." "I will not be able to continue my research there." "There really is no place for me to go." "The only one who wants me is Burkov." "So, where is the problem?" "Go work for Burkov." "He has plenty of money and you'll be able to continue your research." "Burkov is making the bomb." "And what of that?" "Do you really believe that if you refuse to make it, it will not be made?" "I suffered under that illusion in my youth as well, the end result of which was that I helped build the bomb both here and over there." "You cannot stop progress, Sasha." "There will always be someone willing to use scientific discovery to further causes of evil." "What does that mean?" "That science should be outlawed?" "Do you think that if you don't work for Burkov now, some other Burkov in the future will not find a way to use your achievements for more efficient warfare?" "Or something even worse?" "If that's the case, why not just quit altogether?" "I am only interested in the structure of the Universe." "Why can't I be left alone to study it?" "Be left alone - in Burkov's employ." "Even Christ, that shining beacon of morality, preached to "render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's"." "Continue your cosmological research for God, and make the bomb - for Caesar." "(VOICE-OVER) I had another alternative in mind - emigration." "At nights, I wandered the streets, saying goodbye to my beloved city." "That summer in Moscow was hit with an unprecedented heat wave." "The sidewalks practically melted under one's feet." "The streets in Moscow were swirled in acrid smog." "All around the city underground swamps were on fire." "The "refusniks" would jokingly remark that the Egyptian plagues had begun." "Applying for emigration was risky." "One might never get permission to leave and be forced to remain in Russia an outlaw " ""a refusnik" with your career and life ruined." "Still I wasn't afraid." "Somehow I was sure of my luck." "Our committee reviewed your application to change your permanent place of residence to the country of Israel and decided that permission should not be granted." "On what grounds?" "On the grounds that you were involved in classified work." "But the Institute where I worked was not classified." "You cannot know that." "Our committee only can know which organizations are classified and which aren't." "I suggest you find some other work." "You may return to us in not less than three years." "What will happen if I find work and in three years you again decide that it is classified?" "Then you will again be refused." "#" "The woman who works for me has all the footage you are looking for." "She shot it herself, so there won't be any problem with the copyright." "Let's go right now to the editing room in my church." "In 15 minutes we are expected to be at the Congress banquet." "Then you'll come to my place tomorrow first thing in the morning." "Agree?" "Ladies and gentlemen!" "We have a very special guest with us today!" "For those of you who don't know, he like many others, had to leave us during the years of stagnation." "And he is the first of immigrants we knew, who has come back to visit us." "It is Sasha Greenberg!" "This is especially difficult for me, as you all know Greenberg is my pupil." "But treason is treason." "Therefore, we'll all have to tear the traitor from our hearts." "I confess I should have exercised more foresight," "I should have recognized Greenberg as a future traitor right away." "I am guilty." "I only hope never to repeat this mistake." "We are proud of Sasha's success in America, his achievements are ours, for he is flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood." "All the more joyous this day, when we can again be together." "Sasha, come over to my house!" "You can't refuse, I've already got a lamb!" "Does anyone else want to say anything?" "Comrades, comrades, what is happening here?" "Greenberg wants to emigrate to Israel and professor Gross can find nothing better than to accuse him of treason?" "!" "Of course, we all know that Greenberg is a traitor." "Our nation fed him, nourished Greenberg, spent money for his education, and now he wants to emigrate to Israel, to give his knowledge to our imperialistic enemies, to the enemies of the all progressive humankind!" "Comrades, I think we should petition the authorities not to allow this!" "Greenberg's place is not Israel, it's prison!" "What do you think about that?" "You, Tolik Gurov!" "You used to be his friend!" "Come up here!" "Tell us what you think!" "This is true." "Sasha was my friend..." "I am sorry..." "Who could have known?" "Who could have guessed?" "I will try to not have friends again..." "I mean, such friends." "This is better, with the water." "In case it's bugged." "You're not mad at me, are you?" "He just left me no choice." "It doesn't matter what I say." "You're leaving anyway." "I'm the one who has to stay here..." "Maybe I should leave too?" "What do you think?" "Just because Galileo publicly denied his beliefs, the Earth did not stop orbiting the Sun." "It is all, like Hamlet said, words, words, words." "Thanks." "For what?" "For being the only one to not say anything." "Was I?" "Yes." "It's alright." "It's just a ritual, anyway." "No one really thinks like that." "Yeah." "Right." "Want to come over?" "I have some vodka..." "OK?" "Let's go." "No shame!" "No shame at all!" "Now they're bringing men to the rooms..." "Oh, wait till I call the police." "Don't pay any attention." "She's totally harmless." "You know, I was in love with you our freshmen year." "I suspected it." "Why didn't you say something?" "Everybody was in love with you." "Swarms of Casanovas..." "I was too shy." "Shall we drink to your departure, yeah?" "It's a little strange - everybody wanted to be with you and you're still not married." "Yeah, I'm too picky." "Why aren't you married?" "I guess I'm too picky also." "To the picky ones." "You may stay here, if you want." "It's hard to believe you're leaving us." "We'll never see each other again. "Never"." "Never-never-never-never" "It's a strange word..." "Never." "It's not definite yet." "I'm the first PhD physicist to apply for emigration." "They may not let me out." "Oh, you will leave." "And a good thing too." "You'll be happy there..." "Just don't try being noble right now and asking me to marry you so we could leave together." "My life's already planned out." "I'll never make a good wife, I'm afraid." "I can't serve astrophysics and a man too at the same time." "I would like to have a baby, though... and I think sometimes: what if I pick one of you guys, one of the best, and get pregnant." "I would hide it from the father, of course." "It's easier to care for a child without having to care for a man too, huh?" "So, there is theory in your solitude." "Well, then, in mine too." "I have thought of leaving many times," "I just couldn't figure out how." "I've thought of defecting even." "What would I do with a wife?" "It's just pure luck for me that emigration started when it did..." "What?" "Oh, are you afraid I'm going to try and get pregnant right now?" "Don't worry." "Not tonight." "Do you like her?" "She is my daughter." "You see, I did it." "I had a child and I raised her without a husband." "I had this certain plan." "Sasha knew about it." "Doesn't her father know he has a daughter?" "I didn't tell him." "And her?" "I didn't tell her either." "Once, when she got especially persistent, I told her she couldn't meet him anyway." "She wanted to know why." "I said, "because he is an American"." "She got stuck on the idea, she tells everyone her father is an American, she speaks to everybody in English..." "So it goes." "Is he actually American?" "In a way." "Let me introduce you two." "Sasha, Jill, this is Elena." "Elena, as you know, Sasha is my old friend." "Mom has told me lots about you." "And not just Mom." "You're sort of a legend around here." "To my surprise, I am discovering this for myself." "As well as some other things." "Why did you name her Elena?" "Why not?" "I see you've met my namesake." "We've become quite good friends in the past few days." "I don't have any friends!" "I'm sorry." "Don't take it personally." "I really don't have any friends." "Why don't you have friends, Elena?" "Do you?" "As a matter of fact, yes." "That's just because you're American." "Around here, we don't do that." "What nonsense you're saying!" "Don't you know how many friends I have?" "I know." "That's why I said it." "She's so difficult lately." "Adolescence, you know." "Comrades!" "Comrades!" "Ladies and Gentlemen!" "Sasha Greenberg is not the only old friend we are greeting today after years of separation!" "There is another person, well known to most of you here, whom we haven't seen in just as many years as Sasha." "Friends, let us drink to the ever beautiful Helen of Troy!" "#" "Excuse me, are you..." "Helen Preston?" "Yes, yes I am." "You called..." "Asked me to come..." "Here I am." "I am Sasha Greenberg." "Of course!" "Of course!" "You're the famous Greenberg!" "Famous?" "How?" "The first physicist refusenik." "The freedom fighter." "So, you came over from America on an exchange program?" "Citizen, you are violating laws here." "Let's see your pass!" "You've been fired from this institute." "You should've turned in your pass a long time ago." "I'll be leaving in a few minutes." "What few minutes?" "Chromov, Come on, take his other arm!" "Sasha!" "This is a serious offense." "This is a scientific facility, we have classified information here." "Lucky for us, a comrade called and informed us." "Otherwise, we'd be taking the heat for this." "Is that the spy?" "Let's have him!" "Sasha, I will be behind you." "You're Greenberg?" "I am." "You can go." "Why was I detained?" "Why don't you ask your buddies at the institute." "Suddenly, there's this racket - spy, spy, spy!" "The director of the institute says "he's no spy"." "So go on, get out of here before someone else gives an opinion!" "Oh, thank God, it's you!" "I called the embassy, I called Gross." "I guess Gross he must have got through to them." "Thanks." "Did you know this could happen if you showed up?" "I didn't entirely discount the possibility." "So why did you come?" "You asked me to." "Until the end of last century, Moscow was a completely unique city." "All green and white, yellow and gold." "Hills were covered with gardens, white and yellow mansions and palaces with green roofs drowning in the gardens, golden domes crowning churches and cathedrals.." "So, you were saying that your experiments support my hypothesis?" "Now, if gamma is less than one you must increase the mass by a factor of two." "Right." "But gamma is more than one in this case." "Can we see your house from here?" "My house?" "Ah, it's over there." "You see the yellow high-rises right behind there." "Let's go there?" "God, I've never felt so happy." "Happy Birthday!" "You gonna let me in?" "Of course..." "Come in, I didn't invite anyone." "Didn't plan anything." "Thanks for remembering." "You're not supposed to invite anyone." "A birthday party should only be for those who remember." "You think anyone remembers me now?" "We'll see about that." "(door bell)" "You see!" "And you said no one would remember!" "Oh, Sasha!" "Happy birthday!" "(singing)" "Sasha, I want to make a toast!" "I'd like to talk to you in private." "Right now?" "OK, go ahead." "I want to make a toast!" "Where's Natasha?" "Where's Helen of Troy?" "I'll get them." "I want to tell you I'm in love with Sasha." "I want everything to be in the open between us." "Wonderful!" "Why tell me, of all people?" "Because I thought you were together." "Sasha and I are old friends." "If you mean sex, then, yes, we did sleep together... once." "You have my permission." "Even if I were in love with him, maybe even he with me," "I would still tell you to go ahead." "Why?" "Because Sasha's destiny is not with me." "There is nothing I can do to help him, but you can." "What about you?" "Don't you wanna leave?" "No, It's very hard for a woman to attain any sort of position in science." "I've achieved a lot here and Gross appreciates me." "And anyway where would I go?" "For what?" "Where the hell did everybody go?" "I want to make a toast already." "(singing)" "Your application is accepted." "The trial period is three months." "Come back in three months and we will marry you." "Three months!" "What do you mean, in three months?" "Her visa expires in two weeks!" "Couldn't you speed it up, in view of the circumstances?" "Young man, we do not make exceptions or "speed things up"!" "The law is the same for everybody!" "I know their tricks." "You won't be able to get a visa for longer than a month and we'll never be able to get married." "Fine!" "I'll contact the Senate." "I'm going to get you out of here!" "The American Senate?" "What does it have to do with anything?" "Everything." "Sasha, this is Rabbi Katz, this is Sasha." "Shalom." "Shalom." "The rabbi has kindly agreed to marry us." "But you're not even Jewish!" "Now I am." "I converted." "Soviet authorities will not recognize a marriage performed by an American rabbi." "But the American Senate will, and I think the American people will." "And then we'll see what your authorities will have to say." "(MUSIC)" "It was my mother's..." "Who knows what's hidden inside this little figurine." "Who is this?" "That was my father." "He was killed in 1945." "That's his last picture." "Pictures of military uniforms are forbidden to leave the country." "But it's from World War Two!" "I don't make up the laws." "You can leave it behind or I can cut it." "Go ahead." "Cut." "Do you think you've outwitted the experimenters and returned from unexplored space?" "I wasn't thinking that at all, Master." "On the contrary, you were right all along:" "one does not return from unexplored space." "I have merely made another pass into a new unexplored space." "How long's it been since you've been here?" "Seventeen years." "I'll bet you can't wait to see your friends!" "I can't." "They're gonna tell you how great everything has become, how things have changed." "Don't believe them." "Our lives are still pretty hard." "You're a guest?" "Go right ahead, I'm not even going to open it." "Go on, your friends are waiting." "Your labyrinth has changed so much, I can't keep a sense of reality." "I have a persistent feeling I'm in a dream." "Reality can get a little hazy when one consumes such vast amounts of alcohol." "That's why I drink, partially, to regain a sense of reality." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Reality!" "Obviously this word still had some clear meaning for Gross." "As for me, all such words as reality, logic, sanity, time, place lost their sense a long time ago." "It's amazing." "Can I really live here?" "Can you really be my wife?" "I'm really your wife, and I have some news for you." "We're going to have a baby!" "She found him?" "Thank God." "Where was he?" "What happened?" "Brenda lost the baby!" "She found him." "Yeah." "Thank you." "Thank you." "I'm coming." "I'm going to have to quit my job." "If that's what you really want." "I don't think I have a choice." "I, I used to get so angry whenever people said women they only go to college to get husbands, but, maybe, they were right." "Daddy has to stay home and work today and tomorrow too..." "OK?" "We'll play later." "I have to work on the phone." "Anything?" "No, it's useless." "There are no open positions anywhere." "How about universities?" "They are always looking for someone." "Not all universities have the means and facilities I need to continue working on my model." "So, now what?" "I don't know." "Hughes wants to hire me." "He keeps calling back." "He's got tons of money." "I remember once you preferred emigration to working for the military." "Yes, I had somewhere to emigrate then." "Oh well, if it's a chance for you to keep working on your model, how can I say "no"?" "By the way, he is paying triple of what I get now." "I'm, I'm so tired." "So much work in the house." "God, if you only knew how much I hate you!" "I hate your face, I hate your voice, I hate the air you breathe!" "But most of all I hate that Universe of yours that consumes absolutely everything." "It sucked away every single drop of my life!" "I've had it." "You go sacrifice somebody else's life for it." "Just go!" "Worship it." "Go, go!" "Fuck it for all I care!" "Have fun!" "I love you." "You know that." "Me?" "!" "You love me?" "!" "The only thing you worship is your Universe and your own mind." "(PHONE RINGING)" "Yes?" "Yes, this is..." "Sasha Greenberg." "You called before, right?" "I remember." "You're making a film about science." "Your wife?" "Umm... maybe not." "What does that mean?" "It means that I am not sure." "I am afraid I can't give you definite answers on everything, not even science." "So, be forewarned." "Scientific progress is a pretty ambiguous concept." "After Hiroshima, it is very fashionable to give up science." "It may have been a sixties' cliche." "But you didn't give up?" "I know that and smoking and drinking are bad for me, but I haven't given them up." "Besides, I've already mentioned an ambiguity, an uncertainty." "Science has done a lot of good too." "So, if I understand you correctly, that a science is much like the presence of your wife:" "a definite "maybe"." "Agree?" "Agree." "What're you." "Would you like to have dinner with me?" "Maybe..." "There is a certain ambiguity involved here, an uncertainty." "And you do not approve?" "Strangely enough, I kind of like it." "The Universe is boundless." "Imagine that on a small planet orbiting a tertiary star, one of billions of such stars in an insignificant galaxy, a group of microscopic creatures dares to grasp in their minds the entire extent of the Universe!" "Let us drink to ourselves, friends, the most daring representatives of the daring race of humankind!" "What's there to be proud of?" "Man's a dirty animal!" "The only species with the bent and ability to self-destruct, taking the rest of the planet with it!" "I know, I know." "Our atmosphere is polluted." "Our waters are poisoned." "Entire species of animals are being annihilated!" "We are living on a bomb with the lit fuse, and still we dare to be proud of ourselves!" "And all human family values and social traditions have collapsed." "For real, do you have a wife or not?" "In the past two years, she's left four times and come back three times." "And why?" "Why did she come back?" "We have a son together, I asked her to... and, I guess, she does love me." "Why'd she leave?" "She says I ruined her career." "She was a scientist before I..." "before she had the baby and quit work to stay home." "You're a male chauvinist?" "!" "Bullshit!" "I hate those labels!" "For the past two years she's been working anyway." "And before that she's always done what she's wanted." "I've yet to see a married woman who does whatever she wants!" "You two should get along splendidly." "My God!" "You're so beautiful!" "Are you Helen?" "Nice to meet you." "I'm Jill." "In eighteen years, he's never once said thank you for anything I've done!" "What're you talking about?" "Did you thank me every time I came home with a paycheck?" "It's ridiculous." "No, it's not." "You earned your paycheck doing what you loved best!" "What did I get for my work?" "!" "You've done what women have done for centuries." "You're such a Male chauvinist!" "I never asked for your sacrifices." "You wanted me to give up my career!" "To compromise all my principles and live on blood money you got for making bombs!" "Nobody, absolutely nobody forced you into any of it!" "Besides, if you want to talk about sacrifices, you should try eating one of your dinners!" "I'm an astrophysicist Sasha." "I'm not your cook!" "So be an astrophysicist!" "Nobody's stopping you." "Professor, you know how much respect I have for you, but there is something I wish to steal." "It is Sasha?" "The very one." "Will you permit me?" "What can I do?" "I can refuse you nothing." "Thank you, professor." "It's so stuffy in here." "Let's go outside for a few minutes." "Come on, let's go." "We'll be back in a minute." "It's right around here." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Moscow." "The familiar city of my youth, and at the same time completely different." "We've been driving for half an hour." "A whole half hour without alcohol." "It might actually be good for your health." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "I hoped to find here the answers to the questions" "I am struggling with, instead I've got more questions." "Will I manage to find answers to them?" "And this is where we live these days." "When my daughter was born, I applied for a new place." "It took three years." "You remember my old communal apartment - what a rough time I had with Elena there." "Now we have two rooms." "It's pretty far, but it's alright." "The Metro is fast." "Is Elena coming right back?" "Uh uh." "She is spending the night at her grandparents'." "There's your vodka." "Is she my daughter?" "What difference does it make?" "What do you mean, what difference?" "I want to know." "Don't bother asking, I'm not going to tell you anyway." "Let's drink to the mysteries in life, um?" "Natasha, wait..." "Don't say a word, Sasha." "I am not blind, I have seen your harem of women." "Look at me." "Look at me." "My body is just as good as twenty years ago." "Aren't you happy I brought you here?" "Tomorrow we'll dance the tango at my parents'." "You won't believe this." "All the old records are still there." "Nothing has changed at their house." "Do you remember the old church next door?" "The one that used to be all nailed up?" "We used to sneak in at night?" "It's being restored." "It looks like new." "We'll go there, I'll show you around." "Mom!" "It's me." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "This girl." "She did not even exist when I left." "Everyone hardly changed at all, but out of nowhere, as if out of sea foam - there she was." "There was something mystical about that." "Don't come in here." "I am not alone." "I know you're not." "Why did you come back then?" "It's my house too." "It is." "Now go to sleep, darling." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "All my days in Moscow I couldn't stop thinking about Elena and, look, here she was." "Now she will move furniture all night long." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "The presence of this girl was definitely changing my perception of the world." "Do you know how it is in science fiction, when you return from a trip to the past to find out you accidentally changed something?" "Both your past and your present are no longer yours." "They may seem the same at first glance, but you look closer and no - there is this girl." "So, you inevitably start re-examining everything else, including yourself." "We cannot be the same, life cannot go on as before." "Good morning." "Good morning." "Although I am not sure it is morning yet." "I've wanted to talk to you." "Let's walk." "Sure, let's." "After all, what else is there to do around here at this time?" "Oh, sure." "In America, you can probably go to a cafe at three in the morning, at 5 in the morning, at 7 o'clock." "Yes." "I hate it!" "I hate all of this." "Because there aren't any cafes?" "Because there isn't any life." "Don't make jokes, sir." "Do you think you're my father?" "I don't really know." "What do you think?" "I don't know." "But I don't think so." "According to my papers, I am sixteen." "Which means that you left at least six months before she got pregnant." "Of course, she could've forged them." "Who?" "My mother." "She can do anything." "You're so harsh." "I hate her." "She is an old lying bitch." "Well, obviously our perspectives are a little different." "Want to know what I think of your mother?" "Yeah." "She's a lovely, talented woman." "A hard worker." "Alone, she managed not only to have a career in science, but to raise you as well." "That's a miracle in itself." "Through all this she's retained a youthful sense of romanticism." "You call her a liar, but I'd rather think of her as romantic." "Because she lies?" "Yeah?" "We were talking about tomorrow." "You know what she wants to do?" "She was dreaming of showing me an old church." "I'm sure." "She takes all her men to that stupid church." "She's been there a thousand times." "You are cruel." "You're cruel!" "Don't you see?" "If you loved her even a little bit, you wouldn't make her sound like such a saint." "I don't think I understand." "And what do you do understand?" "I want to tell you about myself." "I grew up under the portrait of a man I never met." "He was a hero, they said." "A man who wasn't afraid to apply for emigration when his chances were nil." "But mostly, he was going to conquer the Universe." "A genius." "The new Einstein." "Kiss me." "Not like that." "For real." "Elena." "You're supposed to know how to take a risk." "This is my cab." "Yours is the next one." "See you tomorrow." "Hi." "Morning." "Were you waiting for me?" "Yeah." "You want to get some sleep?" "It's already morning." "Why bother?" "What do you want most of all right now?" "Seriously?" "Absolutely." "An interesting question." "There's no rush." "Think about it." "I'd really like to see the house where I grew up." "Something has definitely changed here." "I can't believe this." "We're finally alone." "To think that, in this yard, I spent several thousand of my childhood days." "I recognize it, but, at the same time, I don't." "I have this strange feeling I'm going to wake up in New York any minute now." "You know, I can't find our windows." "It's as if they disappeared." "Maybe I am sleeping?" "Or losing my mind." "The window has been bricked up." "The building was remodeled five years ago." "They were going to tear it down, but changed their minds." "Stop, kike!" "Stop. kike!" "Stop kike!" "Kike-take a hike!" "We've got you now!" "Ugh!" "I smell garlic!" "Ugh!" "The kike stinks of garlic!" "You're Sasha Greenberg, aren't you?" "Yes, I am." "I'm Volodya Listov." "We've got you now, you dirty kike!" "On your knees, kike!" "Down, I said!" "Do you recognize me?" "We haven't seen each other in, what, since we were twelve or so, when you moved away." "I recognized you, though." "We used to be friends when we were kids." "When we were little, we used to fight, of course, but kids are supposed to." "Repeat after me:" ""I am a dirty kike..."" "I am a dirty kike..." ""I stink."" "I stink." ""I am gross."" "I am gross." ""I am begging you to beat the shit out of me."" "I am begging you to beat me." "Then we used to share a desk at school." "I, a young pioneer of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, here, before my comrades, do solemnly swear to always uphold the ideals of Lenin and Stalin and to fight for Victory of Communism everywhere." "To fight for the ideals of Lenin and Stalin." "Be prepared!" "Always prepared!" "You're lucky you ran into me." "I am the only one left of the old tenants." "Everyone's been moved out to the new developments." "The building's not the same, either." "All the walls have been moved around." "I can't even show you your old apartment - it doesn't exist anymore." "I am the only one who could get a place here after they renovated." "And that, um, only because it was mainly my efforts that saved the building." "You must be pretty powerful to be able to save buildings." "Don't you know?" "I'm a writer." "Pretty famous too, in a way." "Where do you live, What do you do?" "I live in America." "I'm in cosmology - that's a science about how the Universe works." "Interesting stuff!" "Do you want to come in for a while?" "We can talk, have a drink over old times." "I really don't think so." "We're on a very tight schedule." "We have to meet someone in a half hour." "Krymsky." "At his church." "Then Sasha has to give his report." "Krymsky, the millionaire?" "I know him a little." "If you don't mind, I'd like to join you." "Morning." "Hello." "Hello." "Good morning." "(BAND PLAYING)" "Ah, my worst enemy!" "Good of you to join us!" "What brings you here?" "I've long been curious to see what you do here." "You have an objection?" "Not at all!" "Welcome, welcome." "Any tongue-lashing by your magazine is just free publicity for us." "(BAND PLAYING)" "You see, he calls me his worst enemy!" "And he's not far from the truth." "Why, of course, I am." "Look!" "He's turned God's house into a honky-tonk, for Christ's sake!" "You people want me to be happy about it?" "Would you prefer if it were still a warehouse for boots?" "I didn't turn it into a warehouse." "I would prefer it to still be a house of God." "Him and his lot, you wait, they'll be calling me a reactionary and an anti-Semite." "Well, if you want, I am a reactionary." "Now they're poisoning our youth with this rock'n'roll crap." "By "they" you mean Jews, of course?" "You see, what did I tell you?" "You know, there are Jews and there are Jews." "(BAND PLAYING)" "I have friends who are Jews." "A profiteer like him, who's Russian, why, he's just as revolting to me as a Jew profiteer." "Anyway, nobody can deny that there's a disproportionately large amount of Jews in this new "private sector"." "Just as there was in the revolution." "And just who do you think made warehouses out of churches?" "Jews are so overly sensitive to criticism." "At Nuremberg they tried such critics!" "Understand?" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Yes, no doubt Russia of 1992 was drastically different from Russia prior to Perestroika." "In the churches boot warehouses were replaced with freedom-loving rock singers, and Krimsky was running business activities which in the Russia I left were punishable by years of imprisonment or even execution by firing squads." "So, what does your company really do?" "Are you a scientific research facility, a film studio, or a rock theatre?" "It's like a daisy flower - in the center is the main enterprise from which sprout separate ventures and petals." "Our major petal I'll be showing you tomorrow." "Site seeing tours of Moscow on "troikas" with gypsies." ""Troikas"?" "What's "troikas"?" "They're carriages drawn by three horses together." "Very Russian." "Very Russian." "They're waiting for us in the editing room, ready to start, I believe." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "And now we were going to see footage, that not long ago was banned from any screening at all." "So why didn't all these changes in Russia thrill me?" "This is just raw footage." "I understand you're gathering footage like that from all over the world." "I'll comment as we go along." "Every year Soviet factories release over sixty million tons of pollutants." "In sixty-eight different industrial centers, the air pollution level exceeds the norm by 100 times." "Twenty percent of Soviet citizens live in ecologically critical areas and another thirty five to forty percent in areas "ecologically unsafe"." "This is about 175 million people - approximately eight times the population of Canada." "The Black sea is overloaded with pollutants." "Every year they dump 30 tons of mercury in there, not to mention about dozens of other poisons." "The sea is dying." "Two and a half million dolphins that used to live here not long ago, are now survived by only eighty thousand." "The great Russian Volga river, it contains approximately 700 times the allowed con-centration of oil-industry wastes." "Most of Soviet rivers are in much worse condition." "A farmer passing by threw his cigarette butt in this river." "Is anyone tired?" "Should I stop?" "These things aren't only happening in Russia." "I'd like to show you some of my footage." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" ""The time is out of joint" " "Shakespeare said it half a millennium ago and we are happily repeating it century after century and keep switching it out of joint endlessly." "How long can it go on?" "The planet life was healthier in the time of Shakespeare." "And family life is definitely deteriorated since then." "I hate you." "I hate your face, I hate your voice, I hate the air you breathe." "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "At least if I judge by mine." "Sasha, marry me!" "You know..." "I love Helen." "It's crazy!" "You told me you've never had sex like this before!" "With anybody!" "And I'll say it again." "You said you couldn't live with Helen." "I did." "And she left you?" "She did." "Then marry me..." "I'll stop making films if you want." "I can be a really good wife." "I'll make breakfast for you every morning." "Want me to?" "No." "Why?" "Because this is like a deja-vu!" "Because I've been through this with Helen!" "And the recurrence of this pattern scares the hell out of me." "Helen and I have been through enough insanity." "I don't want that for you." "But I won't be like that." "If you marry me you will." "I know." "Why?" "Because the world's gone crazy!" "Because the traditional family has crumbled and there's nothing left to replace it!" "Everyone - women, nations, Soviet physicists - everyone wants freedom but, sometimes, the price of freedom is collapse." "Before I deliver my paper, I would like to say a few words." "The world is changing at an incredible pace." "When I was younger, scientists were the undisputed heroes of my time." "The 19th century philosophy still prevailed, war, famine, and disease would all magically disappear if we could only educate people properly." "The Biblical parable of Adam and Eve's banishment from the garden of Eden after eating forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge was reduced to a silly fairy tale." "The very thought that knowledge could bring anything except absolute bliss was laughable." "The curiosity that is the essential characteristic of every scientist was regarded as a moral virtue." "It was referred to as "sacred curiosity"." "My own professor, Doctor Heinrich Gross, would do everything in his power to instill this quality into his students." "I do the same thing now, with my new students!" "It is the only moral basis of humanity, the only thing that separates us from the animals, this sacred curiosity!" "This is correct." "Animals do not have this quality." "Perhaps that is why animals haven't tried to annihilate the human race, and humans, are even now, successfully ridding the planet of all animal life." "My friends, tell me honestly, have you ever thought that man is the plague of the Universe?" "God's punishment, an implement of death and destruction, something akin to a virus or a cancerous growth that exists only to destroy all life?" "Demagogy!" "Do not fear, Master, I am not calling for the banishment of science." "I felt I had to say these words." "Thank you for indulging me." "(CLAPPING)" "Ah, let's now get down to business." "How close is your model to a final understanding of the Universe?" "I feel it's very close." "Excuse me, I think I missed something:" "does your theory offer an immediate solution for any of today's problems?" "I need a drink." "You need some sleep." "Do you really think I could sleep?" "I need a drink first." "You should try." "Call room service." "But you probably won't get it until tomorrow." "Was I really that bad?" "Everyone seemed to like it." "I feel horrible." "Get some sleep, Sasha." "If I don't have a drink I'm going to throw up." "I heard your parents are giving a party for Sasha this evening." "Um um." "Yes, they are." "Are you expecting a lot of people?" "A dozen or so..." "We're going to have a trial run of our Moscow tours on troikas with gypsies right now, and I would like to invite your group." "Sasha and Jill are coming." "Thank you." "I'd also like to ask if you would invite us to your little gathering this evening." "Eh." "Thanks." "Yeah." "It was awful." "Just awful." "Sasha, you're a hero here and you want to be one." "I guess you had to think of something to impress the little girl!" "Now, why did you say that?" "Supposedly, you brought me up here with good intentions." "Weren't you trying to help, not make it worse?" "Cut it out!" "I am not your mother!" "I'm not even your wife." "Leave, then." "Fine!" "(KNOCK ON DOOR)" "Come in!" "What happened to you?" "The gypsies are waiting!" "(SINGING)" "Stop here for one second." "I see they just got a vodka delivery." "What, are all these grandmothers alcoholics or something?" "They get forty rubles a month pension." "If you remember, we paid thirty for a bottle of vodka the other day." "Tonight, each of them will sell a bottle and raise their standard of living almost twice." "It's called survival." "Forty rubles!" "That's enough for one dinner at a restaurant!" "With no drinks." "But why would grandmothers go to restaurants anyway?" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Aye, brave beautiful new world!" "We are worrying about having too much freedom and the old ladies are fighting to survive on the monthly pension that can't buy one diner in a restaurant!" "Where are we headed?" "More sanctions they are imposing on us!" "A month ago, they permitted selling at the Rizhsky Market, and now they're forbidding it again!" "What are people supposed to do with all the goods they manufactured to sell there?" "How's anyone going to make any money this way?" "That's a weak government for you." "Those helpless liberals don't know whether they're coming or going." "If it were up to me, I'd shut that Rizhsky Market down once and for all." "It's a joke!" "A fur hat costs three times my pension!" "Who's going to buy it?" "Only another speculator, like themselves!" "So!" "In a government store you'd never even see a hat!" "So, who needs hats anyway!" "First it was the party bigwigs who went around in fur hats, now it's the speculators." "It's never the plain folk." "I don't care if I'm being exploited by Brezhnev or a speculator - it's all the same!" "We need justice, equality." "Everyone should be the same." "There!" "The true voice of Russia!" "Wait a minute!" "If you don't let anyone make the hats, you'll all be going around bareheaded!" "Better without hats than without justice!" "Where did you get that?" "We'll spare no expense when it comes to our own flesh and blood!" "You bought it at a private market." "You can't get piglets at a government store." "So let them grow pigs!" "But not at these prices!" "What prices?" "!" "They start from nothing!" "If they don't survive, you'll never see any piglets at all!" "During Stalin you could get piglets in the stores!" "During Stalin twenty million were slaving away in labor camps!" "And if you were ten minutes late for work they'd put you away too!" "At least there was order." "You see!" "I rest my case!" "Chaos!" "Disaster!" "We're headed for civil war!" "I must say, I don't envy Gorbachev." "Trying to get this country to budge." "You've budged it enough." "Fortunately it won't be much longer." "What's that supposed to mean?" "We're going to set things straight." "And who died and left you boss?" "We don't need your blessing." "As soon as these liberals bring the country to complete collapse, it will fall into our hands, like a ripe fruit." "May I have this dance?" "I can't dance to this." "Oh, it's simple." "Come, come, I'll show you." "Come." "What is the reason for all this gloom?" "It's all so boring." "All these stupid arguments and now this ridiculous tango." "You can leave if you're bored." "No one's keeping you from being with kids your own age." "Kids my own age!" "What a joke!" "Professor, you're a wise man." "Tell me, why is it all so awful?" "Why is everybody so mean?" "Whenever I tell someone I want to go to America, they tell "it's no better over there"!" "Like they want to leave you nothing to hope for." "In Chekhov's play, the three sisters want to get away from the boonies, they keep saying "we want to go to Moscow", and in the whole play there's no villain mean enough to tell them "it sucks there too"." "Happiness is not found in Moscow or New York." "It's here." "You just need time to find it." "Have you?" "I have." "Want to go see the old church?" "What's the matter?" "My mother's interest in architecture is amazing!" "She has just invited Greenberg to see an old church!" "A church!" "What church?" "Where is it?" "That's right!" "There's a famous old church near here." "Let's all go see it together!" "SASHA (VOICE-OVER):" "Many years past since this glorious morning in Moscow, but I still remember it as it happened only yesterday." "You seem troubled, my man." "What have you to be troubled about?" "Master, life has somehow lost much of its luster." "It's called a mid-life crisis." "It's much similar to adolescence." "It's a troubled time." "Difficult." "But It will pass." "You'll get over it." "Everyone does." "I feel like my mid-life crisis is also happening to Russia, to America, to the whole human race." "And if you believe the theory that man is a reflection of the Universe, than, it's also happening to the Universe." "I don't understand this world, this life." "There's a story, of a woman who asked Thomas Alva Edison to explain electricity because she did not understand it." "He answered, that he didn't understand it either and told her to "Just use it!"" "Here it is called "perestroika" - the restructuring." "Although some people seem to think it's a complete collapse, an end." "If you look at the film Jill is making you'd think the whole planet was doomed for sure." "You tell me it's only a phase, that I'm going through a "restructuring" of my own, but I feel like my life is ending." "Adolescents feel that way." "Some of them even go so far as to actually commit suicide." "But there are few of those." "Most restructure and survive." "Look at Elena." "How she suffers!" "That's also a "perestroika", of sorts." "And it's not so bad." "It's, in fact, what makes her so attractive." "To you, for example." "Master, I am old enough to be her father!" "So what?" "Why do you tell me all this?" "To ease your conscience about your attraction to Elena." "It's not so easy!" "It's quite possible, you know, that she is my daughter." "No, she is not." "What makes you so sure?" "Because she is my daughter." "My loss, your luck." "Enjoying the architecture?" "There is something interesting I can show you, even my mother doesn't know about it." "Interested?" "Let's go." "I come up here a lot." "At dawn." "Alone." "I like to be alone." "You know, Professor Gross told me that happiness must be found within oneself." "Do you agree?" "I guess." "Did you find it?" "I'm afraid not." "Why not?" "I don't know." "Maybe it's my fault." "Sometimes it's like some outer force prevents it:" "how can I be happy when the world's gone mad and everything around me is collapsing." "Is it the people?" "Why they don't want to understand?" "Why they don't want to hear?" "Yes." "They don't hear." "Not you, not each other." "Not themselves." "Nobody listens." "But we can make them hear!" "Come on!" "Help me!" "You said you heard me!" "(BELLS RINGING)" "#" "Subtitles by LeapinLar"