The Bonus

Sergey Mikaelyan’s 1974 Soviet film is a strike in reverse: a small construction crew led by Potapov refuses to accept the bonus it has been awarded for exceeding its targets. The reasoning is simple and corrosive. The targets were set low to begin with, which makes management look effective, while the constant downtime underneath costs the workers considerably more than the bonus returns to them. At a hastily convened meeting Potapov is told he cannot possibly know the whole picture, and his crew produces a detailed account demonstrating that they do. Aleksandr Gelman wrote the screenplay first and the stage play afterwards. It took the USSR State Prize in 1976 and was seen by close to thirteen million people.