4

Three people meet in a bar late at night: a woman and two men. None of them knows the others, so each describes himself however he likes. One says he works for the state, one that he tunes pianos, one that he trades in meat. In the morning they scatter, and the film goes into the actual lives of all three. None of what was said is true, and what is true is a good deal stranger. Ilya Khrzhanovsky's first film, written by Vladimir Sorokin. It won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam. The authorities in Russia wanted forty minutes cut out of it; after the festival prizes they backed off and it was shown uncut. Between the provinces, old age and decay, it is not an easy film to sit through.