Men and Beasts (1962) - full transcript
MEN AND BEASTS
Part Two
There you are!
How are you doing here, travelers?
Good morning.
We're very comfortable here.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
And our Tanya is still sleeping,
of course?
She probably couldn't sleep.
We've got a very loud-mouthed cock.
Why, I slept very well.
It looks like
we've saved the man.
But our car is in a very bad shape.
Go and look.
Well...
And what are we going to do now?
We'll have to drive like this.
Anyway, they must have had the party
without us. There's no hurry now.
We'll get it repaired in Zaporozhye.
Thank you for the shelter and
your hospitality.
It's nothing.
Goodbye.
- Tanechka, say goodbye.
- Thank you. Goodbye.
Thank you very much
and goodbye.
- Good luck to you.
- Thank you.
Alexei Ivanovich, what was the most
difficult moment of your life?
I've had enough
difficult moments.
There were very few easy ones.
As for the hard ones, more than enough.
I was dying three times.
Twice in the camps.
And the third time was also
in Germany, in Hamburg.
You see, from Argentina
I moved on to Hamburg.
I had a letter of reference
in my pocket
to a respectable,
so to speak, house.
But I didn't want to make use of it
for quite a number of reasons.
But more than anything else, because
I was determined to go back home,
no matter what might await me there.
But for a newcomer to find
work in Hamburg is not easy.
I didn't find my friends
at the address I had.
So I had to resort
to the Argentine letter.
What is Hamburg like?
Hamburg?
How should I explain it to you?
Hamburg is a big port,
a big city.
The central streets
look quite respectably.
A lot of cars.
A lot of people.
Anyway, enough of them to make
you feel your absolute loneliness.
But there's a district there,
which is known to the whole world -
St. Paoli.
In daytime it is quiet here,
shops are open for the visitors.
But at night it's a real den.
However, my letter led me
to the most affluent quarter.
I had never even supposed that there
were such quiet streets in Hamburg.
Clatter of the hoofs.
Low talking.
A carefree life.
Frau Haslinger received me
quite cordially.
She explained to me that all
in the house drove themselves.
But the sons
may need a chauffeur.
My boys,
as she put it.
Yes, my boys.
She warned me
that the final decision
would be made
by Mister Haslinger.
Thus I got a job of driver-mechanic
in that house.
After all,
it wasn't the worst option.
I thought that this job wouldn't
bring any new humiliations to me.
But I was wrong.
I still had
to meet the children.
Those young men began
their morning in the garage,
where they set up a shooting range.
Their target shooting
was accompanied by discourse.
They derived great pleasure
from trying my patience.
"The shooting should not bother you,"
said the eldest, Siegfried.
"You're a soldier, even a victor. "
"And so brave that even surrendered
into captivity," said the younger one.
And so on in the same vein.
Some mornings their friend
dropped by, a Caesar Carsten.
A very interesting guy.
A character so typical
of today's Western generation.
The brothers both amused and irritated
him by their haughty stupidity.
Though he didn't disdain taking money
from them and eating their meals.
Apparently, he took some
strange liking to me.
He even stood up for me.
He said to Siegfried:
"When you take power
into your hands in Germany,
you will help Mister Pavlov
to return to his country
and take a fitting position there.
One ought to be magnanimous. "
Siegfried, a fully formed fascist,
picked up the game.
"I would never trust a Russian
with a responsible position.
There's a communist lurking
in every one of them. "
And, seeing that all this
annoys me,
they were so happy,
those nice lads.
And immediately they devised
some new dirty tricks.
There we go. What can you
expect of them, the cretins?
"Oh, too bad I haven't got
a notebook with me," said Caesar.
"Or I would've written down all your
jokes, sold them to a newspaper,
and made a good money on it. "
Yes, their relationship
was very complicated.
Caesar had a bride
named Brigitta.
A girl remarkable in no way.
But whenever Siegfried
felt himself up against the wall,
he threatened Caesar with winning her
over from him.
"Watch out," he said, "or I will
put your little one
in my pocket. "
This was the only thing
that made Caesar furious.
He truly loved
his little Cleopatra,
as he jokingly called her.
When the brothers were gone,
he took pleasure in blowing off steam.
"Well, Mister Pavlov,"
he asked me,
"have you been able to accommodate
yourself to these little scoundrels?"
I told him
I had no choice.
That for him
it was but an amusing game,
and for me a cruel necessity.
He said that I misunderstood
his position in society.
"You and me, we're both proletarians,"
he was saying pompously,
"and we both suffer
from human stupidity.
The only difference is in nuances.
I have a whole theory
concerning this.
And one of these days I'll
expound on it for you by all means. "
My hardest work began
at night, about midnight,
when the brothers went
for their nightly hunting.
They started with
the main street, Reeperbahn,
where there wasn't a single joint into
which they hadn't stuck their noses.
And by morning they finished
in some out-of-the-way alley.
There I already
served as a porter.
Alexei!
By dawn, Siegfried got the spirit of
capitalist despotism awakened in him.
He pestered the workers, playing
the role of a patriarchal master
who knew how to speak to the working
class in their own language.
He called on them to come to work
in his shipyard.
"It's the Haslinger company!" he yelled
for the entire street to hear.
"You've certainly heard of it,
haven't you?"
It was impossible to stop him.
And at 8 a. m. I had
to drive my real master,
Mr. Haslinger Senior,
to his office, then to
the shipyard, and so on.
The house help told me
that Madame Haslinger
doubted if she did the right
thing having hired me.
After all, I was Russian, a Red one.
Who knows how it would tell
on the children's susceptible psyche.
But Mr. Haslinger
wasn't concerned about it at all.
His concern was the stock-exchange
reports,
and only the stock-exchange reports.
As most mothers,
Frau Haslinger
had a very dim notion
about her children.
While they were interested
in something absolutely different.
To have them up for a Sunday mass
was almost an impracticable task.
From under their pillows
they let forth a stream of oaths
at the lackey who tried to wake
them up, at their parents,
at the church,
and at God the Almighty himself.
Yet order is above all.
And at 8 in the morning
the nice kids with their parents
drove up to their church, the newest
and most trendy in the district.
Mister Haslinger had
everything of his own here.
His own land,
his own neighbors,
and even his own priest
who always met the family at
the entrance bowing down like a servant.
Here I had a chance
to philosophize with Caesar.
He brought his Brigitta to church
and patiently waited for her.
"Why don't you go to church
yourself?" I once asked him.
"Thank God I can do
without God," said he.
"Though I was a believer
until I turned 12.
But when I spent the whole night on
my knees begging God for good marks,
only to be kicked out
of school the next day,
I understood that God had
no time for me.
The situation with my elder
brother was more dramatic.
He went to the Eastern front
guarded by a soldier's belt buckle
on which was written "God is with us".
But that time God appeared
to be on the Bolsheviks' side
and my brother got a bullet in his
stomach half an inch above the buckle.
Though perhaps his faith helped him
to reconcile himself to death. "
You think dying is easier
for those who believe?
Of course it is.
The believer can hope
to make up in the other world
for all the injustices of this one.
Then he asked me
the following question:
"What keeps you in this world?
You don't believe in God,
life has failed you.
What makes you go on slaving away?"
I said that I'd answer if he told me
what kept him in this world.
"What do you mean, what?
The fact alone that I exist. "
Then he began expounding on a quite
fashionable philosophical theory.
To my question what his
existence is made up of,
he replied importantly: "I eat,
drink and love my little one.
And enjoy laughing
at this most stupid of the worlds.
Isn't it enough for you?
Maybe you believe
in the economic miracle
or in the world-wide
victory of communism?
Or you think that mankind
had buried two few millions of men,
guided by the principle that company
in distress makes the trouble less?"
Company in distress makes
the trouble less.
He said all that
and looked at me like a victor.
I told him I was in no hurry to die,
that I wanted to live.
But I was fed up with
the so-called free loneliness.
I wanted to live among people.
"Imagine that!" -
he exclaimed. -
That cretin Siegfried is right:
there's a communist in every Russian. "
I said I was taking it
for a compliment.
Our conversation had become
more pointed.
"Why don't you go then
to your communist paradise?
Are you afraid they'll make you answer
by all the severity of your laws?"
I said I didn't feel
I was guilty.
But it wasn't that easy
to knock Caesar down.
The great Jaspers said:
"He who justifies himself is guilty. "
Here comes my baby.
She's as pure as Madonna,
and we two remain with our sins.
Meanwhile his lanky baby was
chattering away like a magpie.
Cursing up and down the new church,
so elegantly looking from outside,
and so uncomfortable inside.
The seats are horribly hard.
When will they at last think of
putting soft-seated chairs in church?
"Oh, you poor thing," cooed Caesar.
"Caesar will get rich
and buy a soft-seated Rolls-Royce,
so that his baby find it easier
to play the role of Cleopatra. "
"Cleopatra? Who is she?"
Brigitta got interested.
"Did you have an affair with her?"
"No," said Caesar,
"unfortunately, I had been forestalled. "
She commiserated with him:
"You poor guy.
Was that girl
from a good family?"
Not bad, a quite decent family.
And they drove away.
But poor, poor Caesar,
my poor cold philosopher.
That same evening his Cleopatra
was sitting
in the Haslinger brothers'
company at another game of catch.
- Do you know what "catch" is?
- No.
Don't tell now,
some other time.
Why not?
It's all behind me now.
Did we wake you up?
No. I'm listening.
Why are you looking at me like this?
I understand, you don't want
her to know about all this.
Yes, once I also believed so.
But now I think that indifference and
ignorance are the main evil.
Am I wrong?
No, you are not.
So, the catch.
That's where
I met my friends.
Look here.
Lyoshka!
You, lost-and-never-found!
Just walking past and so haughty!
We've been looking for you
all over the world.
And I've been looking for you.
We have quarters in Munich.
Hamburg is no match to Munich.
Wait, don't get too hot.
Why are you staring like this?
Don't you recognize us?
There's something...
- What's this uniform?
- It's my job.
A driver?
I have to.
One needs to eat.
- We should change it all.
- It's easy to say.
Easy?
We'll take care of it.
I'd like that,
because my bosses are too fun-loving.
Catch, and so on.
I'm turning the wheel all night.
Capitalists!
What the hell of a catch is this?
Just a two-bit joint.
I've seen some in Koln,
one guy bit the other's ear off
and was reaching for his nose.
Wrestling!
- Did you really see it?
- Why should I lie to you?
- Where are you going now?
- We're going to "Four Seasons".
Oh, you really
work for the rich.
Never been there myself,
but they say it's a lushy place.
It really is.
There they go.
We'll be waiting for you at the "Lilli"
restaurant, Reeperbahn, 18.
They close at 6.
- A good joint.
- I know.
We'll wait for you
no matter what.
In the car they paid no attention to me
as if I were
just an inanimate object.
Siegfried guffawed, "It makes me
laugh just to recall Caesar's mug. "
"And I feel sorry for him," -
said Brigitta.
So you feel sorry for him?
And he began kissing her and
saying: "And now? And now?"
Brigitta didn't
stand on principle for long.
She forgot her Caesar very soon.
Then Siegfried, too,
began to philosophize.
"No," he said, "everyone must
know his place in this life.
I'm telling you that,
I, Siegfried Haslinger.
Do you know what Haslinger means?"
He got the idea to show
Brigitta his shipyard immediately.
I told him that we couldn't
get to the shipyard right now.
The tunnel is closed from 10 to 11.
The point is that in Hamburg
the shipyards are connected to
the city by a tunnel under the Elbe.
And when a working shift is
coming out through the tunnel,
all the adjoining streets are
closed for traffic for an hour.
The workers come in a continuous
stream.
They are lifted to the surface
in huge elevators,
and the embankment is crowded
with people.
But what did
the drunk Siegfried care?
Of course, we were stopped
at the elevator.
I am Siegfried Haslinger.
I'm going to my shipyard.
But the official insisted
on keeping to the regulations.
"Let him through," someone said.
"After all he is the boss,
all the business will come to
a standstill without him. "
Everyone around laughed.
Brigitta interfered: "Don't put
yourself in a ridiculous position. "
But there was no stopping him.
"No, we shall go," said Siegfried,
"this is a matter of principle.
We mustn't let people go out of hand. "
I said I wouldn't go.
Siegfried bellowed:
"Get out! I'll drive myself!"
That's when I decided to leave them.
Siegfried yelled something to me
as I was going away,
but I was determined not to come back.
Any patience
runs out some day.
And only after
I mounted the stairs
I heard the sound of glass breaking.
Apparently, Siegfried
had crashed his Mercedes.
I decided to go to the "Lilli" where
Savateyev and Klyachko were waiting.
The "Lilli" turned out
to be a regular dance bar,
a quite typical place for Reeperbahn.
There are many of them there,
a whole nightlife industry.
But it wasn't very
easy to find my friends.
The customers here are
a very mixed crowd:
a streetwalker
with her male partners,
small businessmen,
tourists looking for adventures,
sclerotic old men.
One of them was shamelessly
lying to his Maushen over the phone,
saying that he was calling from
the railway station,
that he was dead tired,
and was going right to bed.
I went to look for them
in the big hall.
It was incredibly crowded
and hot there.
I thought about going home.
But I immediately recalled
that I had no home any more.
Lyosha, hello!
Yes, the "Lilli"...
I won't forget that place
for the rest of my life.
Never before had
I felt my loneliness
with such a wolfish anguish
as in that unthinkable hubbub.
Everything here turned and swirled
like in a huge
senseless machine,
around which a multitude of people
labored away.
Yes, it was a strange conversation.
Somehow it progressed by zigzags,
without any apparent logic or sense.
Hardly saying as many as 10 words,
we already were annoyed at each other.
Going back, going back...
And what had we lost there?
And what awaits us there?
No, mate, it's time
to give up illusions.
Exactly.
What the hell do we need all this for?
What all this?
All this morals, I should say.
Your home country, your home country.
And what is your home country?
What did it give us?
Your home country is where you get
your bread. Someone said it before us.
All right, don't get too hot.
But that's true, really.
It wouldn't do any harm, my friend,
to sort out some vital issues.
As long as we're on it,
excuse me for being blunt.
We heard a lot of beautiful words
when we went to that war,
to that death factory.
We went to attack, too,
and as the saying goes,
we shed our young blood.
Did anyone say 'thank you' to us?
Now you want to go back.
Did you ever think how they're
going to meet you?
You lived at your Marfukha's
like in clover.
- Why, she was a fine broad.
- Wait.
You used the dame,
and you think you've
remained crystal pure?
All right, let's not go
into details, so to speak.
This is your own business.
We don't oppress
or usurp your personality.
Only don't pretend, my friend,
that you're an angel with wings.
Not only them, but even us,
your pals, will ever believe it.
You did write home.
And have you got any reply?
Now Borka Anikin has gone back.
No word from him either.
Why?
Because to all of them we are
lone wolves.
They all are pure there, you know,
and we here are
dirty, see?
But if they had got their share
of filth with blood
for dinner and after dinner,
then they would've known what
it's like to live in this world.
You're wrong about everything.
No, pal, I am not,
but you are, and that's a fact.
We are not wrong, we know
our position only too well.
He must have read that paper,
"The Voice of Your Home Country",
"For Returning Home", or something.
C'mon, pal, it's all baloney.
There's been a decree,
an amnesty for the displaced persons.
We've read it.
- Better have a drink.
- Wait.
- Just for the sake of conversation.
- Wait.
They think only them are humans
and all the rest are just dust.
But I look around
and see that all of them are humans,
they're all just people.
And for everybody, self comes first.
So I want my self
to come first!
It looks like
I was born like this,
and no one should remake me
in his own fashion.
I guess, pal, you haven't
got the sense of it yet.
Live here for a while, look around,
sniff around,
meet some wise people,
and I'm telling you,
your eyes will open up.
Everything will be okay, so to speak,
everything will be all right.
If you have work, you'll have this, too.
He doesn't seem to be in much of
a hurry.
Looking for his chance.
I'm not looking for any chance.
I went to work
for those swine
only to earn money
for a ticket to Berlin.
But I failed at it, too.
I left them today and am not coming
back.
So they hurt you, didn't they?
- Did they rub you the wrong way?
- Maybe they did.
You're too proud, aren't you?
Well, go on, go on.
Do your thing.
What do you need Berlin for?
I don't need Berlin.
I want to go home
from there.
Home.
Well...
Godspeed to you!
But I won't give money to you for this.
And I won't take it from you.
And why not, I wonder?
Isn't my money good enough for you?
It isn't.
Sit down.
So it's not good enough for you?
Are you too pure for it?
I would hang all you pure ones
from one pole!
So it's not good enough for you?!
Let go!
Why are you grabbing at me, you louse?
Bastard!
Why are you pushing me, bastard?
I'll show you what's not good!
Stop it, it's enough for him.
Let's go.
- Come on.
- Let go of me.
And here I felt an irresistible
desire to free myself of life.
Obviously,
there's a measure of insult
beyond which a person's life
loses any meaning or sense.
I don't know how I found my way
back to the "Lilli's" courtyard.
Beggars were rummaging in the garbage.
Women were quarreling in the kitchen.
One of them came out and began
driving me out of the yard.
She said, "Just look at yourself!
Go home to your wife,
let her see what you look like. "
He's picking up somebody.
Yes...
The first thing I saw before me
when they took me out of the noose
was a human face.
That woman's name was Frau Wilde.
I'll show you her photo.
That's what she looked like
when she was young.
I met her
when she was already over 40.
Well, what can I tell you...
You know what I felt
sitting in that small room?
Happiness.
Perhaps I was happy for
the first time in all those 15 years.
There were people around me.
What could a strange German
woman possibly do for me?
And she had done everything.
We sat at the table
and discussed my future life.
That gray-haired woman
exuded peace and confidence.
And I learned that her brother, whom
all in the family called Uncle Peter,
would get me a job in the port,
and would even take it upon himself
to get my salary and my things
from the Haslingers.
And in the meantime I could live
here and sleep on this sofa.
And the girls were so happy about
that decision of their mother.
"What are they so happy about?" -
I thought then.
And I understood.
There were human beings before me.
And human beings are always happy
when someone
comes back to life.
"How many years have you been away
from your home?" asked Frau Wilde.
About 15 years.
And when she heard it, she said
with her typical categoricalness:
"Oh, that's long,
that's too long.
A person must not live for so
long without his home country.
But is it your final decision
to go back home?"
I said it was final.
"Then I rejoice together with you.
If you've made your decision,
you'll certainly get home.
The most important thing in life is to
make up your mind, believe me.
But there's one decision
I would never agree to.
I've also known life
not from its brightest side.
But I insist:
man must live. "
May I have another
look at the photo?
Sure.
And here is Zaporozhye.
I'd better move over to him,
he doesn't know the way.
It's not easy to find one's way here -
old town, new town.
Wait, my friend, I'll drive with you.
Just look how many
new buildings there are!
- When were you here last time?
- Long ago.
Then you will get surprised
all the time now.
And this is Khortitsa.
Too bad Mother
isn't riding with us.
She would have certainly said:
"Zaporozhye is my childhood,
Zaporozhye is my youth.
Zaporozhye is my grief,
Zaporozhye is my joy. "
She used to work here,
was digging up this foundation,
building this dam.
The dam was blown up during the war.
Then it was rebuilt.
It was here that she got married
to Father, too.
Zaporozhye, Zaporozhye,
it's my whole life.
- Your father was killed in the war?
- Yes.
- I see you love your mother.
- My mother?
Varya, they have come!
Oh, what a joy!
Hello.
Drive into the yard.
- Won't I get stuck?
- No, we have a big yard.
- I'd better uncouple it.
- Well, go on, uncouple.
Varya!
At last!
We expected you two days ago.
What happened?
Don't you see?
Mother, just look at this! How long
have you been driving like this?
Almost from Novomoskovsk.
- And where's Tanyusha?
- There is Tanyusha.
Tanechka!
Why are you so thin?
Mother, she doesn't feed her at all!
Like a straw!
Drive your truck off, boy, go take
a swim, and then come back.
So why are you so skinny?
Thank God this kind man gave you
a lift.
A collective farm gave us this truck.
We had an accident.
An accident!
Good gracious!
Let me introduce to you
Alexei Ivanovich Pavlov.
We haven't seen each other since the
siege, and met on the road by chance.
Wait.
Mother, it's that very Pavlov
Anya was telling us so much about.
What a lucky chance!
Hello.
I'm glad to have such a dear guest.
Please come into the house.
Here comes Act Two.
Hello, Aunt Anya.
What is it you've brought?
Even cats would laugh at you.
Some fisherman!
Hello, Ghena.
Why Ghena?
This is Vovka!
You forgot how we came
to you in Leningrad with him?
How can she remember?
Our Ghena is the most eligible
bachelor in all Zaporozhye.
And this one is still a small fry.
Go wash up
and make yourself presentable.
- We'll have breakfast now.
- Grandma, no breakfast for me.
- I'm Pavlov.
- Subbotin.
Please, come on in.
Just look in here.
You probably thought you were late.
Two days ago we felt miserable, too.
But every cloud has a silver lining.
There was an emergency at the plant,
and an emergency in our house.
As we laid the tables two days ago,
so they still stand untouched.
No one comes, everyone is at the plant.
At first they at least answered
the phone, but no longer.
I told you to go and change.
They announced it all over the country,
people arrived from everywhere,
but the automatics failed.
When it works, the whole system works,
when it doesn't, nothing works.
Three controls stopped,
the fourth one doesn't work either,
and all went running and bustling!
It's always like this in every business.
- Varya!
- Well, all right.
This will look good on Grandma.
And this is for me.
You shouldn't have spent money.
Where can I wear them?
You'll find an occasion.
Anya, has he really been
over there all those 17 years?
What he must have gone through,
poor guy.
The man is extremely overstrained.
We should be delicate with him.
Of course, we understand.
Let's go and have breakfast.
Here, help yourself.
- What's your name?
- George.
A typical Ukrainian name.
Tanya, eat your porridge.
And finish it all.
In three days I'll get you
as fat as a Christmas goose.
- Eat your porridge.
- She never eats porridge.
That's your mother's upbringing.
And what does she eat?
Hempseed?
Cold buttermilk,
right form the ice.
Cottage cheese with sour cream.
It makes me cry looking at this girl.
Wait, let her get used to it.
- Eat the dumplings.
- Thank you. I'd better have tea.
- Tea!
- Eat some dumplings.
Just delicious!
- Help yourself, Alexei Ivanovich.
- Thank you.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Join us for breakfast.
- Has your man come yet?
- No.
- Come in.
- I got the table laid, too.
Mine called me three times.
"Be prepared. " he said.
I've been running to the cellar
and back,
but there's no sign of him.
It seems a team has been sent from
Kramatorsk, and they found the fault.
Really? From Kramatorsk?
Imagine what it came down to.
Vovik, run to the plant and
find out how things are.
- All right.
- Wait, Vova.
Take comrade Pavlov along,
show him our plant.
- Would you like to see the plant?
- With great pleasure.
I'll call them
so that they write out a pass for you.
Everything's all right.
Let's go.
Hi, Uncle Kolia.
- Why are you here?
- I brought this comrade.
A foreigner?
No, not a foreigner,
but I need to show him.
A demonstration?
Showing our large scale?
Ah, a correspondent?
So I see.
Yes, why I'm here.
Mother said, please come to us
tonight, with your wife, of course.
We'll be there.
Dad, our guests have arrived.
And Alexei Ivanovich
Pavlov with them.
- Which Alexei Ivanovich?
- An acquaintance of theirs.
Grandma told me
to show him our plant.
Your grandma.
- How do you do. I'm Subbotin.
- And I'm Pavlov.
Get acquainted.
- Pavlov.
- Kuznetsov.
You must have thought you were late,
but it turns out you're here too soon.
We just have to fix it in two more
places,
and you will witness
the launch of a new mill.
We'll try to, and stop it again.
Well, we'll make another try.
That's our job.
- Are you from Kramatorsk?
- No, I'm from Leningrad.
From the Kirov or Electrosila Plant?
No, my line is quite different.
This comrade came to visit with us
and see Zaporozhye.
Nice to meet you.
Well, all right.
Borodai, how are you doing?
Good.
Wait just three minutes.
Wait for us, we are coming.
Come on.
Let's go and see
what's going on there.
How many people do you think
will work here?
About 30.
- Four operators.
- Really?
Not counting the maintenance men.
- Four persons for the whole mill.
- Great.
How is it with you?
Let's go on.
The line is ready.
Load the roll.
Alright, loading the roll!
- Why can't you come in?
- How can I come in?
Like everybody, through the gate.
- No, I feel awkward.
- Why feel awkward?
Grandma, I don't want to,
I can't eat so much.
No, I don't like this.
Ivan Ivanovich, pass me the goose.
Just look at this goose.
Eat, or no boy will want to marry you.
Just look at this nice piece.
Grandma, why are you torturing me?
And who is in there?
I told you, my aunt came from
Leningrad. Come in and meet them.
- Vovik, what are you doing here?
- Nothing. Breathing fresh air.
You are not smoking here, are you?
- Of course not, Mom.
- Don't you dare!
Look, she's hidden.
Why have you hidden?
Just hidden, and that's it.
Can't you really come into the house?
No, I'm not going.
Varya, come and help me here.
She isn't eating anything.
Not eating anything at all.
I told her no one would marry her.
It's all right as long as she has
brains in her head. Go on, eat, honey.
And why are you not eating?
You're behind the times, Grandma.
Today's girls avoid eating.
The latest fashion is a slim waist.
Thank you for explaining it.
We also know something here,
we keep up, we observe.
I'd like to say
a few words, comrades.
- Let the man speak.
- Galya, let him speak.
Allow me to raise
this glass to the people
whom we justly call
the masters of life.
And who are they?
Wait a minute, Grandma,
I know what I'm talking about.
To the people
who didn't sit out in the bushes,
debating and philosophizing,
but took the bull by the horns
and did their thing.
It depends on what bull it is.
Or it might butt you.
Never mind, everything will
fall into place now.
Come on, Ghena, get to the point.
To the people
who believe in their hands,
who rely on their hands,
and achieve their happiness
with their own hands.
It is to those people
that I'm raising my glass.
Your health, Grandma!
Well, let's suppose it's so.
I have a little correction to make, but
I'd better not heat up the discussion.
Well said.
You young people are all like that.
Arrogant and conceited.
Why do you smoke so much?
Throw your cigarette away
and try some ham.
- Thank you.
- Feel yourself at home.
I want to say a few words.
- May I?
- Of course you may.
Come on, dear niece.
I want to propose
that all who gathered at this table
drink to
and remember all those people
who didn't spare their
lives for us,
to all those
who may even
not be at this table,
to their modesty,
and to us all
learning that modesty from them.
Well, to modesty.
To modesty.
And why not?
I shall drink to that.
- Your health.
- Everyone will drink to that.
To your health.
- Just look at her!
- A very good speech!
Where did she get it all?
Anya, your girl is really smart.
And now eat.
You said your word, now eat.
Don't insult your hosts
if you're so fair.
What? She taught you a lesson?
You don't say, Grandma.
I wanted to talk to you,
Alexei Ivanovich.
What are your plans
for your future life?
I haven't thought about it yet.
I'm going to my brother.
And what have you lost there?
Nothing. Just want to see him.
- Not seen each other half a lifetime.
- That's right.
I wanted to suggest
that you stay with us.
It's a lively place,
lots of work here.
All the heads of plants
are our own guys.
They can give you
any kind of job.
I heard that
you got a specialty.
Thank you.
I'll think about it.
Think it over.
Come on, let's dance.
Mind your manners.
Stop it, I said.
Quiet, quiet.
- Let's dance, Raya.
- Some other time.
Don't even think of dancing with him.
Let's click our glasses, daughter.
- What's going on here?
- Dances.
What kind of dances is that?
What's that dance?
How do you like it, Uncle Kolia?
That's all right!
Too bad I didn't learn that dance.
We're going to show them now!
Move the tables aside!
C'mon, let's see how they dance.
May I invite you
to a tango?
- I don't dance.
- I don't believe it.
Nonetheless, I don't.
Well, I'm done for. Absolutely.
And here is Sivash.
We got here in no time.
You must be tired.
Let me drive now.
No, I'm not tired.
Just was thinking of something else.
Thinking about what?
About what?
About many things.
And what exactly?
Exactly, that I shouldn't
have come along with you.
Why not?
Come on, tomorrow you'll
see your brother
and just laugh at
your uncertainties and vacillations.
Don't you ever experience
uncertainties and vacillations?
Why?
It happens to me, too.
But life has
taught me to overcome it.
Or everything would be falling apart
and you'd never put it back together.
You said you were thinking
of many things. What else?
What else?
That we're driving in the parts
where so many people had been killed.
And now everything looks
nice and clean.
And everything is forgotten.
Even in songs
they mention it less and less.
And the living are not oppressed by
the sense of guilt before the dead.
You said everything's forgotten?
No, nothing has been forgotten.
But such is a characteristic of life.
If the living mourn over the dead
forever, life will stop.
Right, that's exactly
what I was thinking.
But somehow it didn't console me.
Perhaps because I happen
to belong to the dead?
Look, Tanya, an eagle is circling.
Really?
Let me snap it.
They say it may circle
like this for 300 years.
And what's the sense?
That's right, too.
Abyss has opened full of stars.
The stars are innumerable,
the abyss bottomless.
Go to sleep.
- Such was GI.
- What do you mean?
- Guiding instruction.
- Go to sleep. Sleep.
Observing life, I come to a conclusion
that man derives the ultimate
enjoyment from a right
to give guiding instructions.
Go on.
Though it is well known that
the ultimate happiness is freedom.
What is there to do about
that contradiction?
Close your eyes and sleep,
there's no other choice.
Well, well.
You were
so unfair today.
Though you realized it
yourself later on.
I'm not accusing you of anything,
I just want to understand.
Why it was today that your
thoughts went into that direction?
Are you sleeping?
- No, I'm not.
- What happened?
I just thought that I shouldn't
have come along with you.
There you go. If you had taken a bus,
what difference would it have made?
I mean that I shouldn't
have gone to see my brother.
Why?
Who needs me there?
No one.
And perhaps my brother
needs me less than anyone else.
I understood it even yesterday.
That boy, Ghena, had
disturbed you, hadn't he?
But the young are
cruel, my dear.
You think I don't suffer enough
from Tanya?
They just cannot understand it all.
The understanding comes later,
with years.
And they judge out of hand,
and in that lies their strength.
No, I'm not accusing anyone.
The point is he's right.
Absolutely right.
It's not the time,
my dear Anna Andreyevna,
for human misfortune
work in defense of man.
No, you're wrong.
That very time has come.
Don't you see it?
I'm not blind, I see everything.
The time has come.
But I guess it's not my time yet.
You know what was
written on the Buchenwald gate?
To everyone his own.
Of course, it's horrible.
But what does it have
to do with you today?
It seems I'm doomed to carry
that sense of guilt all my life.
And any moment anyone
can poke that guilt at me.
This is what's my own.
Why do you think,
my dear Anna Andreyevna,
I haven't come back
home for 17 years?
Why?
I was afraid.
Well, maybe so.
I was afraid that my own people
would reproach me for my own
misfortune.
But you did return.
And it means you have
overcome your sense of fear,
your sense of guilt.
There you go.
I'm not guilty of anything.
All the more so.
Why then do you doubt your brother?
Or maybe he's a bad man?
No, he's a good man.
Was.
What do you mean, was?
He never answered my letters.
I shall never believe that your own
brother didn't answer your letters.
- Something's wrong here.
- Wait, Tanya.
You're simply tired.
What can we do?
Perhaps you'll have
to begin everything from the start.
After the war, we had to begin
many things from the start.
And what helped us to do that?
The sense of righteousness.
The sense of righteousness.
All you're saying is right.
Everything can be started
all over again.
But you need people
to believe you're right.
Well, not everyone
believes us either so far.
But we are no
worse for that.
You know what?
Let's do it this way.
If you don't want
to meet with him at home,
let's write him a letter
and fix a place for your meeting.
Right, let's write
a letter and mail it.
And appoint a meeting place -
the post office.
If he wants it, he'll come;
if he doesn't, it's up to him.
Mom, what are you talking about?
He's sure to come.
Want a bet?
Ah, Anna Andreyevna,
you're such a wonderful person.
You can read it later, your coffee
is getting cold.
What are you staring at?
Eat your breakfast.
Don?t jump up from the table
before the grownups.
I don't want any more, I'm full.
Eat it.
Eat, old chap.
Look how skinny you are.
As skinny as a water-carrying hag.
Pour me some more.
And why are you looking at me like
this? Did I say something wrong?
No. Everything is right, Petya.
There you go, it was a new tablecloth.
Oh, really.
You're right,
I'm always clumsy with milk.
Just amazing how difficult it is
to keep this house clean.
I'm slaving away,
I'm trying my best...
but I might as well beat my head
against a wall.
Yes, you are
absolutely right.
Well, never mind, you can forgive us
on account of a holiday.
Only on account of a holiday.
Put the knife down.
Stop clowning, Yura!
Someone might scare you and you'll be
like this for the rest of your life.
Listen, old chap,
why do you look so pale and dull?
You didn't flunk yesterday, did you?
- No, I've passed it.
- He's passed it!
How many more exams have you got?
Two more exams and one recitation.
Stop rubbing behind your ear.
Don't roll bread balls.
Yes, you shouldn't,
it's not good manners.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for that!
Now he wiped his lips against me.
There're napkins for that.
Don't say that.
I wiped my lips.
Maybe you need my help?
What else have you got?
Political science?
- Marxism.
- Marxism...
Well, that's a familiar thing.
I'll explain it to you in a jiffy.
Have you got your pr?cis?
Dad, I can pass it on my own.
I cannot find my tie.
Haven't you seen my tie by any
chance, Pyotr Ivanovich?
The black one, with specks.
No, I haven't run
across your tie.
What a nuisance.
I looked all over for it.
- Take mine.
- I'm used to that one.
We have a rule in the choir:
everybody wears a dark tie.
Our precentor is very strict about it.
And today is a special occasion -
the song festival.
Here is your tie.
It was in the bathroom.
Thank you, Valyusha.
Thank you, daughter.
Won't you go, too,
my child?
No, Father, you sing yourself.
Do it without me.
For God's sake, will you
stop muttering?
My dear Sergey Nikolayevich,
what is it you sing there?
We sing all kinds of songs.
Folk songs
and the classics.
I, for one, prefer the classics.
Especially, the chorus from "The Demon".
Rubinstein's opera.
So you prefer the classics.
The Party buildup. Whom are they
raking over the coals this time?
Let's see how vigilant
our foreign friends are?
The colonizers are in fright.
- A letter.
- Give it here.
It's for Dad.
What makes you think it's for Dad?
- It's written so - to Dad.
- What's all this hubbub about?
No hubbub.
A letter for you.
You finished? Go take a walk,
see your granddad off.
Come on, Grandpa.
Valyusha, give me the letter.
- You can read it later.
- Give me the letter.
You know from whom this letter is?
It's from my brother Alyoshka!
He's alive!
So what?
We thought he was killed,
but he is alive.
It's Alyoshka, my brother.
You know him.
No, I don't know your brother.
And you don't know him, either.
How can I not know him?
He's here, you know.
All right.
So he's shown up.
Come here.
Come on.
Let's talk.
What kind of a brother is he to you?
He's been hanging about somewhere
for 17 years, and now he's here.
Have you ever thought about
with whom he consorted over there?
What the cheek the man has
to sneak his way into someone's
family with his claims of kinship.
What the hell do you need him for?
Some character suddenly
arrives from faraway lands.
Who is going to vouch for him?
And where did he come from?
You wrote in all questionnaires
that your brother was killed.
Think about your son.
If I hadn't taken care of you, you
would've been in a lot of trouble.
Don't you dare!
I'm asking you to shut up!
Don't you yell at me! It's you who
should shut up, you hysterical man!
You ninny, worse than a woman!
And he dares raising his voice at me!
And who's made you up?
You forgot about it?
Do you really think that
everything I've knocked up,
I'm going to throw now
at your brother's feet?
I don't care a damn about him
and I don't want to know him.
You can make your choice.
Go to your brother, but then
you can forget about your family.
Or stay in the family, but then you
have no brother and will never have!
What a shame!
Just think what you're saying!
I'd thought about it long ago, dear.
You think it's the first letter?
Your brother has been
blackmailing us for 15 years.
And here he is!
Who invited him?
What do you mean, for 15 years?
Where're those letters?
You think I'd be keeping
that filth in my house?
I've burned them, and this one
will follow them.
Wait a second, I'll give you the drops.
Here, drink it.
Well, I think everything's clear.
Let's go home.
And let's assume that
you've lost your bet to me.
It's just because it's a Sunday.
They may not be at home.
Of course, there's no one at home.
But it's all right.
Everything is all right.
No, it's not all right.
It's absolutely not all right.
Do you have a pen?
- Here.
- Thank you.
- Is the address correct?
- It is. Why?
Mom, I'll go and see them.
No, Tanya.
Come here and sit down.
Yes, I'm going there.
Wait for me here,
I'll be back soon.
Why not? Let her go.
No smoking here.
There's the sign.
Yes, yes.
Is this the Pavlovs' apartment?
Yes.
Who do you want to see?
Are they at home?
Yes, at home. Come in.
- Are you their son?
- Yes. Why?
Come out for a minute.
- What for?
- Come out.
All right.
Close the door.
All right.
- So you're a Pavlov?
- Yes, Yuri Pavlov.
Come here.
All right.
Do you know that
your parents are scoundrels?
How can you say that?
Who are you?
It doesn't matter. What matters
is that your parents are scoundrels.
I don't know.
Can you come down
with me now?
Yes, I can.
Come and I'll tell you something.
I can, but I must fetch my cap.
Though I can go like this.
Yes, of course, you can go like this.
Do you know that you have an uncle?
Uncle?
I got an aunt, but no uncle.
Yes, the point is
that you have an uncle.
Your father's brother,
Alexei Ivanovich Pavlov.
He's been killed.
No, he's alive and he is here now,
in Sevastopol.
- I'll go and tell my father.
- No, you don't have to.
Your father knows that he is here,
but he doesn't want to see him.
Because your father is a coward.
I don't understand.
Now, calm down.
Come on, I'll explain everything.
You see, your father's brother
is a wonderful person.
If he wasn't,
I wouldn't have come.
But I did,
because we can't leave it at that,
it's not fair.
We must not.
Wait, wait...
He knows.
He doesn't want to see him.
You said he'd lived
abroad for 17 years.
Why didn't he come back right away?
And why didn't you
reply to him right away?
It's not so easy to come back if
even your relatives don't reply.
I just asked.
This is our theatre.
Yes, I see.
It's so beautiful here.
Why are we standing?
Let's go.
Why didn't he himself
come to see my father?
How could he if you haven't
answered his letters for 15 years?
We haven't received a single
letter. Do you believe me?
I do.
But you did receive a letter today.
- We did.
- Why didn't your father come then?
This is Grafskaya Pier.
Yes, I see.
What do we do now?
Do you want me to go to him?
I want nothing.
Don't you understand
that your father must go to him?
Where's he now?
Was waiting at the post office.
By now, I guess,
he's gone home with my mother.
Do I want...
Can't you understand
that all this
is not good in principle,
that it's dishonest and shameful?
- One can't do this to a man.
- As foe me, I do understand.
- Let's go somewhere.
- All right.
No, no, you can't smoke.
There's the sign.
Yes, yes.
You know what?
Let's go home.
Yes, let's go.
What shall I do?
He's my father.
Well, my mother...
But my father is a fine man, too.
he's kind and honorable.
Perhaps he's a weak man.
I don't know,
but we must not leave it at that.
Talk to your father.
If you're a really good man,
you'll find the strength to do it.
And if he's a really good man,
he'll understand you.
- I'll see you to your place.
- No, don't.
You better go to your father.
We're leaving tomorrow morning.
All right.
Yura, the address!
- The address.
- Here, write it down.
Where have you been all this time?
What's up?
Dad, we need to talk.
Yes, Yura, we do.
Is she asleep?
I think she's fallen asleep.
She shut herself in.
Come in.
Dad, we can no longer
live like this.
- Like what, Yura?
- The way we live.
It's not good living like that,
Dad, it's vulgar.
What are you talking about, Yura?
How else can we live?
We're no worse than anyone else.
- Please, not now...
- You're right, not now.
Listen, let's leave.
Where for?
Where can we two go, Yura?
Let's move to another city.
Our country is huge.
Or at least to another apartment.
You make it sound so simple.
Another apartment.
Everything is so simple for you.
Nobody will understand us, Yura.
And who's supposed to understand us?
I think that first
we should understand ourselves.
- Ourselves?
- Uh-huh.
To understand is easy.
But how should we act?
Act according your conscience.
How else can one act?
And what do you think
I must do?
First of all you must
go now to your brother,
talk to him, meet with him.
And you will decide together
what's best to do.
Yes, but I don't
even know his address.
She burnt the letter.
Here's the address.
Third window round the corner.
He's waiting for you.
Alexei Ivanovich...
- Pyotr!
- Alyoshka! You're alive!
Alive.
Oh, who would think that!
Come in, I'll open up for you.
I came just for a minute.
I'd better come tomorrow,
and now just for a minute.
Yes, yes, of course.
Just think of it...
How it all turned out.
It's hard.
You know, brother, it's so hard.
Why is it so hard for you, brother?
What is so hard?
Everything is hard.
I've lived an easy life
and didn't see how I was living.
And now I began to think
and see that everything's hard.
Come on, brother.
Don't torture yourself in vain,
go on living as before.
You think so?
You won't be able to live
differently, anyway.
Why not?
You know why.
And don't think of me.
- You've got your life, I mine.
- That's right.
You see?
I just came to take a look at you,
what you're like now.
And what do you say?
I see that you're alive and well.
Well, I have no problems
with my health so far.
And that's great.
But it's late already.
Go home, brother,
before they begin to worry about you.
And tomorrow?
What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow I'll go away.
You're already going?
As for you, you can
do whatever you like tomorrow.
Goodbye, brother.
Go with peace.
Why, it's Yurka.
- What Yurka?
- Yurka Pavlov.
What are you talking about?
Standing by the pole
is your nephew Yurka.
That's what you're like.
Gosh, you're a big man.
I wonder who you look like?
Well, you look like yourself.
This is my mother.
How do you do, Yura.
Go on, and I'll ride along.
Only drive slowly.
- Write to us.
- Yes, of course.
I'd like to write to Uncle Lyosha,
but I don't know the address.
Write to Zaporozhye and you won't
miss. Write poste restante.
Why poste restante?
I'll give the address.
Here.
Come to see us. It's not far.
I may come tonight.
Now I'll see you off and go back,
and tonight I'll come to you.
Yes, come.
It may be ridiculous,
but I feel so nervous now.
We're approaching
the Baidarsky Gate.
I want you
to see it all
as I first saw it,
when I was a little girl.
I experienced then
a complete happiness.
A world full of light and air
opened up before me.
I want you to see it
just as I saw it then.
Look, Tanya. Look!
Oh, it's a pity there's a haze over
the sea now.
It's all right, Mom.
It's all right, darling.
I see it all.
I see it all.
The End
Part Two
There you are!
How are you doing here, travelers?
Good morning.
We're very comfortable here.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
And our Tanya is still sleeping,
of course?
She probably couldn't sleep.
We've got a very loud-mouthed cock.
Why, I slept very well.
It looks like
we've saved the man.
But our car is in a very bad shape.
Go and look.
Well...
And what are we going to do now?
We'll have to drive like this.
Anyway, they must have had the party
without us. There's no hurry now.
We'll get it repaired in Zaporozhye.
Thank you for the shelter and
your hospitality.
It's nothing.
Goodbye.
- Tanechka, say goodbye.
- Thank you. Goodbye.
Thank you very much
and goodbye.
- Good luck to you.
- Thank you.
Alexei Ivanovich, what was the most
difficult moment of your life?
I've had enough
difficult moments.
There were very few easy ones.
As for the hard ones, more than enough.
I was dying three times.
Twice in the camps.
And the third time was also
in Germany, in Hamburg.
You see, from Argentina
I moved on to Hamburg.
I had a letter of reference
in my pocket
to a respectable,
so to speak, house.
But I didn't want to make use of it
for quite a number of reasons.
But more than anything else, because
I was determined to go back home,
no matter what might await me there.
But for a newcomer to find
work in Hamburg is not easy.
I didn't find my friends
at the address I had.
So I had to resort
to the Argentine letter.
What is Hamburg like?
Hamburg?
How should I explain it to you?
Hamburg is a big port,
a big city.
The central streets
look quite respectably.
A lot of cars.
A lot of people.
Anyway, enough of them to make
you feel your absolute loneliness.
But there's a district there,
which is known to the whole world -
St. Paoli.
In daytime it is quiet here,
shops are open for the visitors.
But at night it's a real den.
However, my letter led me
to the most affluent quarter.
I had never even supposed that there
were such quiet streets in Hamburg.
Clatter of the hoofs.
Low talking.
A carefree life.
Frau Haslinger received me
quite cordially.
She explained to me that all
in the house drove themselves.
But the sons
may need a chauffeur.
My boys,
as she put it.
Yes, my boys.
She warned me
that the final decision
would be made
by Mister Haslinger.
Thus I got a job of driver-mechanic
in that house.
After all,
it wasn't the worst option.
I thought that this job wouldn't
bring any new humiliations to me.
But I was wrong.
I still had
to meet the children.
Those young men began
their morning in the garage,
where they set up a shooting range.
Their target shooting
was accompanied by discourse.
They derived great pleasure
from trying my patience.
"The shooting should not bother you,"
said the eldest, Siegfried.
"You're a soldier, even a victor. "
"And so brave that even surrendered
into captivity," said the younger one.
And so on in the same vein.
Some mornings their friend
dropped by, a Caesar Carsten.
A very interesting guy.
A character so typical
of today's Western generation.
The brothers both amused and irritated
him by their haughty stupidity.
Though he didn't disdain taking money
from them and eating their meals.
Apparently, he took some
strange liking to me.
He even stood up for me.
He said to Siegfried:
"When you take power
into your hands in Germany,
you will help Mister Pavlov
to return to his country
and take a fitting position there.
One ought to be magnanimous. "
Siegfried, a fully formed fascist,
picked up the game.
"I would never trust a Russian
with a responsible position.
There's a communist lurking
in every one of them. "
And, seeing that all this
annoys me,
they were so happy,
those nice lads.
And immediately they devised
some new dirty tricks.
There we go. What can you
expect of them, the cretins?
"Oh, too bad I haven't got
a notebook with me," said Caesar.
"Or I would've written down all your
jokes, sold them to a newspaper,
and made a good money on it. "
Yes, their relationship
was very complicated.
Caesar had a bride
named Brigitta.
A girl remarkable in no way.
But whenever Siegfried
felt himself up against the wall,
he threatened Caesar with winning her
over from him.
"Watch out," he said, "or I will
put your little one
in my pocket. "
This was the only thing
that made Caesar furious.
He truly loved
his little Cleopatra,
as he jokingly called her.
When the brothers were gone,
he took pleasure in blowing off steam.
"Well, Mister Pavlov,"
he asked me,
"have you been able to accommodate
yourself to these little scoundrels?"
I told him
I had no choice.
That for him
it was but an amusing game,
and for me a cruel necessity.
He said that I misunderstood
his position in society.
"You and me, we're both proletarians,"
he was saying pompously,
"and we both suffer
from human stupidity.
The only difference is in nuances.
I have a whole theory
concerning this.
And one of these days I'll
expound on it for you by all means. "
My hardest work began
at night, about midnight,
when the brothers went
for their nightly hunting.
They started with
the main street, Reeperbahn,
where there wasn't a single joint into
which they hadn't stuck their noses.
And by morning they finished
in some out-of-the-way alley.
There I already
served as a porter.
Alexei!
By dawn, Siegfried got the spirit of
capitalist despotism awakened in him.
He pestered the workers, playing
the role of a patriarchal master
who knew how to speak to the working
class in their own language.
He called on them to come to work
in his shipyard.
"It's the Haslinger company!" he yelled
for the entire street to hear.
"You've certainly heard of it,
haven't you?"
It was impossible to stop him.
And at 8 a. m. I had
to drive my real master,
Mr. Haslinger Senior,
to his office, then to
the shipyard, and so on.
The house help told me
that Madame Haslinger
doubted if she did the right
thing having hired me.
After all, I was Russian, a Red one.
Who knows how it would tell
on the children's susceptible psyche.
But Mr. Haslinger
wasn't concerned about it at all.
His concern was the stock-exchange
reports,
and only the stock-exchange reports.
As most mothers,
Frau Haslinger
had a very dim notion
about her children.
While they were interested
in something absolutely different.
To have them up for a Sunday mass
was almost an impracticable task.
From under their pillows
they let forth a stream of oaths
at the lackey who tried to wake
them up, at their parents,
at the church,
and at God the Almighty himself.
Yet order is above all.
And at 8 in the morning
the nice kids with their parents
drove up to their church, the newest
and most trendy in the district.
Mister Haslinger had
everything of his own here.
His own land,
his own neighbors,
and even his own priest
who always met the family at
the entrance bowing down like a servant.
Here I had a chance
to philosophize with Caesar.
He brought his Brigitta to church
and patiently waited for her.
"Why don't you go to church
yourself?" I once asked him.
"Thank God I can do
without God," said he.
"Though I was a believer
until I turned 12.
But when I spent the whole night on
my knees begging God for good marks,
only to be kicked out
of school the next day,
I understood that God had
no time for me.
The situation with my elder
brother was more dramatic.
He went to the Eastern front
guarded by a soldier's belt buckle
on which was written "God is with us".
But that time God appeared
to be on the Bolsheviks' side
and my brother got a bullet in his
stomach half an inch above the buckle.
Though perhaps his faith helped him
to reconcile himself to death. "
You think dying is easier
for those who believe?
Of course it is.
The believer can hope
to make up in the other world
for all the injustices of this one.
Then he asked me
the following question:
"What keeps you in this world?
You don't believe in God,
life has failed you.
What makes you go on slaving away?"
I said that I'd answer if he told me
what kept him in this world.
"What do you mean, what?
The fact alone that I exist. "
Then he began expounding on a quite
fashionable philosophical theory.
To my question what his
existence is made up of,
he replied importantly: "I eat,
drink and love my little one.
And enjoy laughing
at this most stupid of the worlds.
Isn't it enough for you?
Maybe you believe
in the economic miracle
or in the world-wide
victory of communism?
Or you think that mankind
had buried two few millions of men,
guided by the principle that company
in distress makes the trouble less?"
Company in distress makes
the trouble less.
He said all that
and looked at me like a victor.
I told him I was in no hurry to die,
that I wanted to live.
But I was fed up with
the so-called free loneliness.
I wanted to live among people.
"Imagine that!" -
he exclaimed. -
That cretin Siegfried is right:
there's a communist in every Russian. "
I said I was taking it
for a compliment.
Our conversation had become
more pointed.
"Why don't you go then
to your communist paradise?
Are you afraid they'll make you answer
by all the severity of your laws?"
I said I didn't feel
I was guilty.
But it wasn't that easy
to knock Caesar down.
The great Jaspers said:
"He who justifies himself is guilty. "
Here comes my baby.
She's as pure as Madonna,
and we two remain with our sins.
Meanwhile his lanky baby was
chattering away like a magpie.
Cursing up and down the new church,
so elegantly looking from outside,
and so uncomfortable inside.
The seats are horribly hard.
When will they at last think of
putting soft-seated chairs in church?
"Oh, you poor thing," cooed Caesar.
"Caesar will get rich
and buy a soft-seated Rolls-Royce,
so that his baby find it easier
to play the role of Cleopatra. "
"Cleopatra? Who is she?"
Brigitta got interested.
"Did you have an affair with her?"
"No," said Caesar,
"unfortunately, I had been forestalled. "
She commiserated with him:
"You poor guy.
Was that girl
from a good family?"
Not bad, a quite decent family.
And they drove away.
But poor, poor Caesar,
my poor cold philosopher.
That same evening his Cleopatra
was sitting
in the Haslinger brothers'
company at another game of catch.
- Do you know what "catch" is?
- No.
Don't tell now,
some other time.
Why not?
It's all behind me now.
Did we wake you up?
No. I'm listening.
Why are you looking at me like this?
I understand, you don't want
her to know about all this.
Yes, once I also believed so.
But now I think that indifference and
ignorance are the main evil.
Am I wrong?
No, you are not.
So, the catch.
That's where
I met my friends.
Look here.
Lyoshka!
You, lost-and-never-found!
Just walking past and so haughty!
We've been looking for you
all over the world.
And I've been looking for you.
We have quarters in Munich.
Hamburg is no match to Munich.
Wait, don't get too hot.
Why are you staring like this?
Don't you recognize us?
There's something...
- What's this uniform?
- It's my job.
A driver?
I have to.
One needs to eat.
- We should change it all.
- It's easy to say.
Easy?
We'll take care of it.
I'd like that,
because my bosses are too fun-loving.
Catch, and so on.
I'm turning the wheel all night.
Capitalists!
What the hell of a catch is this?
Just a two-bit joint.
I've seen some in Koln,
one guy bit the other's ear off
and was reaching for his nose.
Wrestling!
- Did you really see it?
- Why should I lie to you?
- Where are you going now?
- We're going to "Four Seasons".
Oh, you really
work for the rich.
Never been there myself,
but they say it's a lushy place.
It really is.
There they go.
We'll be waiting for you at the "Lilli"
restaurant, Reeperbahn, 18.
They close at 6.
- A good joint.
- I know.
We'll wait for you
no matter what.
In the car they paid no attention to me
as if I were
just an inanimate object.
Siegfried guffawed, "It makes me
laugh just to recall Caesar's mug. "
"And I feel sorry for him," -
said Brigitta.
So you feel sorry for him?
And he began kissing her and
saying: "And now? And now?"
Brigitta didn't
stand on principle for long.
She forgot her Caesar very soon.
Then Siegfried, too,
began to philosophize.
"No," he said, "everyone must
know his place in this life.
I'm telling you that,
I, Siegfried Haslinger.
Do you know what Haslinger means?"
He got the idea to show
Brigitta his shipyard immediately.
I told him that we couldn't
get to the shipyard right now.
The tunnel is closed from 10 to 11.
The point is that in Hamburg
the shipyards are connected to
the city by a tunnel under the Elbe.
And when a working shift is
coming out through the tunnel,
all the adjoining streets are
closed for traffic for an hour.
The workers come in a continuous
stream.
They are lifted to the surface
in huge elevators,
and the embankment is crowded
with people.
But what did
the drunk Siegfried care?
Of course, we were stopped
at the elevator.
I am Siegfried Haslinger.
I'm going to my shipyard.
But the official insisted
on keeping to the regulations.
"Let him through," someone said.
"After all he is the boss,
all the business will come to
a standstill without him. "
Everyone around laughed.
Brigitta interfered: "Don't put
yourself in a ridiculous position. "
But there was no stopping him.
"No, we shall go," said Siegfried,
"this is a matter of principle.
We mustn't let people go out of hand. "
I said I wouldn't go.
Siegfried bellowed:
"Get out! I'll drive myself!"
That's when I decided to leave them.
Siegfried yelled something to me
as I was going away,
but I was determined not to come back.
Any patience
runs out some day.
And only after
I mounted the stairs
I heard the sound of glass breaking.
Apparently, Siegfried
had crashed his Mercedes.
I decided to go to the "Lilli" where
Savateyev and Klyachko were waiting.
The "Lilli" turned out
to be a regular dance bar,
a quite typical place for Reeperbahn.
There are many of them there,
a whole nightlife industry.
But it wasn't very
easy to find my friends.
The customers here are
a very mixed crowd:
a streetwalker
with her male partners,
small businessmen,
tourists looking for adventures,
sclerotic old men.
One of them was shamelessly
lying to his Maushen over the phone,
saying that he was calling from
the railway station,
that he was dead tired,
and was going right to bed.
I went to look for them
in the big hall.
It was incredibly crowded
and hot there.
I thought about going home.
But I immediately recalled
that I had no home any more.
Lyosha, hello!
Yes, the "Lilli"...
I won't forget that place
for the rest of my life.
Never before had
I felt my loneliness
with such a wolfish anguish
as in that unthinkable hubbub.
Everything here turned and swirled
like in a huge
senseless machine,
around which a multitude of people
labored away.
Yes, it was a strange conversation.
Somehow it progressed by zigzags,
without any apparent logic or sense.
Hardly saying as many as 10 words,
we already were annoyed at each other.
Going back, going back...
And what had we lost there?
And what awaits us there?
No, mate, it's time
to give up illusions.
Exactly.
What the hell do we need all this for?
What all this?
All this morals, I should say.
Your home country, your home country.
And what is your home country?
What did it give us?
Your home country is where you get
your bread. Someone said it before us.
All right, don't get too hot.
But that's true, really.
It wouldn't do any harm, my friend,
to sort out some vital issues.
As long as we're on it,
excuse me for being blunt.
We heard a lot of beautiful words
when we went to that war,
to that death factory.
We went to attack, too,
and as the saying goes,
we shed our young blood.
Did anyone say 'thank you' to us?
Now you want to go back.
Did you ever think how they're
going to meet you?
You lived at your Marfukha's
like in clover.
- Why, she was a fine broad.
- Wait.
You used the dame,
and you think you've
remained crystal pure?
All right, let's not go
into details, so to speak.
This is your own business.
We don't oppress
or usurp your personality.
Only don't pretend, my friend,
that you're an angel with wings.
Not only them, but even us,
your pals, will ever believe it.
You did write home.
And have you got any reply?
Now Borka Anikin has gone back.
No word from him either.
Why?
Because to all of them we are
lone wolves.
They all are pure there, you know,
and we here are
dirty, see?
But if they had got their share
of filth with blood
for dinner and after dinner,
then they would've known what
it's like to live in this world.
You're wrong about everything.
No, pal, I am not,
but you are, and that's a fact.
We are not wrong, we know
our position only too well.
He must have read that paper,
"The Voice of Your Home Country",
"For Returning Home", or something.
C'mon, pal, it's all baloney.
There's been a decree,
an amnesty for the displaced persons.
We've read it.
- Better have a drink.
- Wait.
- Just for the sake of conversation.
- Wait.
They think only them are humans
and all the rest are just dust.
But I look around
and see that all of them are humans,
they're all just people.
And for everybody, self comes first.
So I want my self
to come first!
It looks like
I was born like this,
and no one should remake me
in his own fashion.
I guess, pal, you haven't
got the sense of it yet.
Live here for a while, look around,
sniff around,
meet some wise people,
and I'm telling you,
your eyes will open up.
Everything will be okay, so to speak,
everything will be all right.
If you have work, you'll have this, too.
He doesn't seem to be in much of
a hurry.
Looking for his chance.
I'm not looking for any chance.
I went to work
for those swine
only to earn money
for a ticket to Berlin.
But I failed at it, too.
I left them today and am not coming
back.
So they hurt you, didn't they?
- Did they rub you the wrong way?
- Maybe they did.
You're too proud, aren't you?
Well, go on, go on.
Do your thing.
What do you need Berlin for?
I don't need Berlin.
I want to go home
from there.
Home.
Well...
Godspeed to you!
But I won't give money to you for this.
And I won't take it from you.
And why not, I wonder?
Isn't my money good enough for you?
It isn't.
Sit down.
So it's not good enough for you?
Are you too pure for it?
I would hang all you pure ones
from one pole!
So it's not good enough for you?!
Let go!
Why are you grabbing at me, you louse?
Bastard!
Why are you pushing me, bastard?
I'll show you what's not good!
Stop it, it's enough for him.
Let's go.
- Come on.
- Let go of me.
And here I felt an irresistible
desire to free myself of life.
Obviously,
there's a measure of insult
beyond which a person's life
loses any meaning or sense.
I don't know how I found my way
back to the "Lilli's" courtyard.
Beggars were rummaging in the garbage.
Women were quarreling in the kitchen.
One of them came out and began
driving me out of the yard.
She said, "Just look at yourself!
Go home to your wife,
let her see what you look like. "
He's picking up somebody.
Yes...
The first thing I saw before me
when they took me out of the noose
was a human face.
That woman's name was Frau Wilde.
I'll show you her photo.
That's what she looked like
when she was young.
I met her
when she was already over 40.
Well, what can I tell you...
You know what I felt
sitting in that small room?
Happiness.
Perhaps I was happy for
the first time in all those 15 years.
There were people around me.
What could a strange German
woman possibly do for me?
And she had done everything.
We sat at the table
and discussed my future life.
That gray-haired woman
exuded peace and confidence.
And I learned that her brother, whom
all in the family called Uncle Peter,
would get me a job in the port,
and would even take it upon himself
to get my salary and my things
from the Haslingers.
And in the meantime I could live
here and sleep on this sofa.
And the girls were so happy about
that decision of their mother.
"What are they so happy about?" -
I thought then.
And I understood.
There were human beings before me.
And human beings are always happy
when someone
comes back to life.
"How many years have you been away
from your home?" asked Frau Wilde.
About 15 years.
And when she heard it, she said
with her typical categoricalness:
"Oh, that's long,
that's too long.
A person must not live for so
long without his home country.
But is it your final decision
to go back home?"
I said it was final.
"Then I rejoice together with you.
If you've made your decision,
you'll certainly get home.
The most important thing in life is to
make up your mind, believe me.
But there's one decision
I would never agree to.
I've also known life
not from its brightest side.
But I insist:
man must live. "
May I have another
look at the photo?
Sure.
And here is Zaporozhye.
I'd better move over to him,
he doesn't know the way.
It's not easy to find one's way here -
old town, new town.
Wait, my friend, I'll drive with you.
Just look how many
new buildings there are!
- When were you here last time?
- Long ago.
Then you will get surprised
all the time now.
And this is Khortitsa.
Too bad Mother
isn't riding with us.
She would have certainly said:
"Zaporozhye is my childhood,
Zaporozhye is my youth.
Zaporozhye is my grief,
Zaporozhye is my joy. "
She used to work here,
was digging up this foundation,
building this dam.
The dam was blown up during the war.
Then it was rebuilt.
It was here that she got married
to Father, too.
Zaporozhye, Zaporozhye,
it's my whole life.
- Your father was killed in the war?
- Yes.
- I see you love your mother.
- My mother?
Varya, they have come!
Oh, what a joy!
Hello.
Drive into the yard.
- Won't I get stuck?
- No, we have a big yard.
- I'd better uncouple it.
- Well, go on, uncouple.
Varya!
At last!
We expected you two days ago.
What happened?
Don't you see?
Mother, just look at this! How long
have you been driving like this?
Almost from Novomoskovsk.
- And where's Tanyusha?
- There is Tanyusha.
Tanechka!
Why are you so thin?
Mother, she doesn't feed her at all!
Like a straw!
Drive your truck off, boy, go take
a swim, and then come back.
So why are you so skinny?
Thank God this kind man gave you
a lift.
A collective farm gave us this truck.
We had an accident.
An accident!
Good gracious!
Let me introduce to you
Alexei Ivanovich Pavlov.
We haven't seen each other since the
siege, and met on the road by chance.
Wait.
Mother, it's that very Pavlov
Anya was telling us so much about.
What a lucky chance!
Hello.
I'm glad to have such a dear guest.
Please come into the house.
Here comes Act Two.
Hello, Aunt Anya.
What is it you've brought?
Even cats would laugh at you.
Some fisherman!
Hello, Ghena.
Why Ghena?
This is Vovka!
You forgot how we came
to you in Leningrad with him?
How can she remember?
Our Ghena is the most eligible
bachelor in all Zaporozhye.
And this one is still a small fry.
Go wash up
and make yourself presentable.
- We'll have breakfast now.
- Grandma, no breakfast for me.
- I'm Pavlov.
- Subbotin.
Please, come on in.
Just look in here.
You probably thought you were late.
Two days ago we felt miserable, too.
But every cloud has a silver lining.
There was an emergency at the plant,
and an emergency in our house.
As we laid the tables two days ago,
so they still stand untouched.
No one comes, everyone is at the plant.
At first they at least answered
the phone, but no longer.
I told you to go and change.
They announced it all over the country,
people arrived from everywhere,
but the automatics failed.
When it works, the whole system works,
when it doesn't, nothing works.
Three controls stopped,
the fourth one doesn't work either,
and all went running and bustling!
It's always like this in every business.
- Varya!
- Well, all right.
This will look good on Grandma.
And this is for me.
You shouldn't have spent money.
Where can I wear them?
You'll find an occasion.
Anya, has he really been
over there all those 17 years?
What he must have gone through,
poor guy.
The man is extremely overstrained.
We should be delicate with him.
Of course, we understand.
Let's go and have breakfast.
Here, help yourself.
- What's your name?
- George.
A typical Ukrainian name.
Tanya, eat your porridge.
And finish it all.
In three days I'll get you
as fat as a Christmas goose.
- Eat your porridge.
- She never eats porridge.
That's your mother's upbringing.
And what does she eat?
Hempseed?
Cold buttermilk,
right form the ice.
Cottage cheese with sour cream.
It makes me cry looking at this girl.
Wait, let her get used to it.
- Eat the dumplings.
- Thank you. I'd better have tea.
- Tea!
- Eat some dumplings.
Just delicious!
- Help yourself, Alexei Ivanovich.
- Thank you.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Join us for breakfast.
- Has your man come yet?
- No.
- Come in.
- I got the table laid, too.
Mine called me three times.
"Be prepared. " he said.
I've been running to the cellar
and back,
but there's no sign of him.
It seems a team has been sent from
Kramatorsk, and they found the fault.
Really? From Kramatorsk?
Imagine what it came down to.
Vovik, run to the plant and
find out how things are.
- All right.
- Wait, Vova.
Take comrade Pavlov along,
show him our plant.
- Would you like to see the plant?
- With great pleasure.
I'll call them
so that they write out a pass for you.
Everything's all right.
Let's go.
Hi, Uncle Kolia.
- Why are you here?
- I brought this comrade.
A foreigner?
No, not a foreigner,
but I need to show him.
A demonstration?
Showing our large scale?
Ah, a correspondent?
So I see.
Yes, why I'm here.
Mother said, please come to us
tonight, with your wife, of course.
We'll be there.
Dad, our guests have arrived.
And Alexei Ivanovich
Pavlov with them.
- Which Alexei Ivanovich?
- An acquaintance of theirs.
Grandma told me
to show him our plant.
Your grandma.
- How do you do. I'm Subbotin.
- And I'm Pavlov.
Get acquainted.
- Pavlov.
- Kuznetsov.
You must have thought you were late,
but it turns out you're here too soon.
We just have to fix it in two more
places,
and you will witness
the launch of a new mill.
We'll try to, and stop it again.
Well, we'll make another try.
That's our job.
- Are you from Kramatorsk?
- No, I'm from Leningrad.
From the Kirov or Electrosila Plant?
No, my line is quite different.
This comrade came to visit with us
and see Zaporozhye.
Nice to meet you.
Well, all right.
Borodai, how are you doing?
Good.
Wait just three minutes.
Wait for us, we are coming.
Come on.
Let's go and see
what's going on there.
How many people do you think
will work here?
About 30.
- Four operators.
- Really?
Not counting the maintenance men.
- Four persons for the whole mill.
- Great.
How is it with you?
Let's go on.
The line is ready.
Load the roll.
Alright, loading the roll!
- Why can't you come in?
- How can I come in?
Like everybody, through the gate.
- No, I feel awkward.
- Why feel awkward?
Grandma, I don't want to,
I can't eat so much.
No, I don't like this.
Ivan Ivanovich, pass me the goose.
Just look at this goose.
Eat, or no boy will want to marry you.
Just look at this nice piece.
Grandma, why are you torturing me?
And who is in there?
I told you, my aunt came from
Leningrad. Come in and meet them.
- Vovik, what are you doing here?
- Nothing. Breathing fresh air.
You are not smoking here, are you?
- Of course not, Mom.
- Don't you dare!
Look, she's hidden.
Why have you hidden?
Just hidden, and that's it.
Can't you really come into the house?
No, I'm not going.
Varya, come and help me here.
She isn't eating anything.
Not eating anything at all.
I told her no one would marry her.
It's all right as long as she has
brains in her head. Go on, eat, honey.
And why are you not eating?
You're behind the times, Grandma.
Today's girls avoid eating.
The latest fashion is a slim waist.
Thank you for explaining it.
We also know something here,
we keep up, we observe.
I'd like to say
a few words, comrades.
- Let the man speak.
- Galya, let him speak.
Allow me to raise
this glass to the people
whom we justly call
the masters of life.
And who are they?
Wait a minute, Grandma,
I know what I'm talking about.
To the people
who didn't sit out in the bushes,
debating and philosophizing,
but took the bull by the horns
and did their thing.
It depends on what bull it is.
Or it might butt you.
Never mind, everything will
fall into place now.
Come on, Ghena, get to the point.
To the people
who believe in their hands,
who rely on their hands,
and achieve their happiness
with their own hands.
It is to those people
that I'm raising my glass.
Your health, Grandma!
Well, let's suppose it's so.
I have a little correction to make, but
I'd better not heat up the discussion.
Well said.
You young people are all like that.
Arrogant and conceited.
Why do you smoke so much?
Throw your cigarette away
and try some ham.
- Thank you.
- Feel yourself at home.
I want to say a few words.
- May I?
- Of course you may.
Come on, dear niece.
I want to propose
that all who gathered at this table
drink to
and remember all those people
who didn't spare their
lives for us,
to all those
who may even
not be at this table,
to their modesty,
and to us all
learning that modesty from them.
Well, to modesty.
To modesty.
And why not?
I shall drink to that.
- Your health.
- Everyone will drink to that.
To your health.
- Just look at her!
- A very good speech!
Where did she get it all?
Anya, your girl is really smart.
And now eat.
You said your word, now eat.
Don't insult your hosts
if you're so fair.
What? She taught you a lesson?
You don't say, Grandma.
I wanted to talk to you,
Alexei Ivanovich.
What are your plans
for your future life?
I haven't thought about it yet.
I'm going to my brother.
And what have you lost there?
Nothing. Just want to see him.
- Not seen each other half a lifetime.
- That's right.
I wanted to suggest
that you stay with us.
It's a lively place,
lots of work here.
All the heads of plants
are our own guys.
They can give you
any kind of job.
I heard that
you got a specialty.
Thank you.
I'll think about it.
Think it over.
Come on, let's dance.
Mind your manners.
Stop it, I said.
Quiet, quiet.
- Let's dance, Raya.
- Some other time.
Don't even think of dancing with him.
Let's click our glasses, daughter.
- What's going on here?
- Dances.
What kind of dances is that?
What's that dance?
How do you like it, Uncle Kolia?
That's all right!
Too bad I didn't learn that dance.
We're going to show them now!
Move the tables aside!
C'mon, let's see how they dance.
May I invite you
to a tango?
- I don't dance.
- I don't believe it.
Nonetheless, I don't.
Well, I'm done for. Absolutely.
And here is Sivash.
We got here in no time.
You must be tired.
Let me drive now.
No, I'm not tired.
Just was thinking of something else.
Thinking about what?
About what?
About many things.
And what exactly?
Exactly, that I shouldn't
have come along with you.
Why not?
Come on, tomorrow you'll
see your brother
and just laugh at
your uncertainties and vacillations.
Don't you ever experience
uncertainties and vacillations?
Why?
It happens to me, too.
But life has
taught me to overcome it.
Or everything would be falling apart
and you'd never put it back together.
You said you were thinking
of many things. What else?
What else?
That we're driving in the parts
where so many people had been killed.
And now everything looks
nice and clean.
And everything is forgotten.
Even in songs
they mention it less and less.
And the living are not oppressed by
the sense of guilt before the dead.
You said everything's forgotten?
No, nothing has been forgotten.
But such is a characteristic of life.
If the living mourn over the dead
forever, life will stop.
Right, that's exactly
what I was thinking.
But somehow it didn't console me.
Perhaps because I happen
to belong to the dead?
Look, Tanya, an eagle is circling.
Really?
Let me snap it.
They say it may circle
like this for 300 years.
And what's the sense?
That's right, too.
Abyss has opened full of stars.
The stars are innumerable,
the abyss bottomless.
Go to sleep.
- Such was GI.
- What do you mean?
- Guiding instruction.
- Go to sleep. Sleep.
Observing life, I come to a conclusion
that man derives the ultimate
enjoyment from a right
to give guiding instructions.
Go on.
Though it is well known that
the ultimate happiness is freedom.
What is there to do about
that contradiction?
Close your eyes and sleep,
there's no other choice.
Well, well.
You were
so unfair today.
Though you realized it
yourself later on.
I'm not accusing you of anything,
I just want to understand.
Why it was today that your
thoughts went into that direction?
Are you sleeping?
- No, I'm not.
- What happened?
I just thought that I shouldn't
have come along with you.
There you go. If you had taken a bus,
what difference would it have made?
I mean that I shouldn't
have gone to see my brother.
Why?
Who needs me there?
No one.
And perhaps my brother
needs me less than anyone else.
I understood it even yesterday.
That boy, Ghena, had
disturbed you, hadn't he?
But the young are
cruel, my dear.
You think I don't suffer enough
from Tanya?
They just cannot understand it all.
The understanding comes later,
with years.
And they judge out of hand,
and in that lies their strength.
No, I'm not accusing anyone.
The point is he's right.
Absolutely right.
It's not the time,
my dear Anna Andreyevna,
for human misfortune
work in defense of man.
No, you're wrong.
That very time has come.
Don't you see it?
I'm not blind, I see everything.
The time has come.
But I guess it's not my time yet.
You know what was
written on the Buchenwald gate?
To everyone his own.
Of course, it's horrible.
But what does it have
to do with you today?
It seems I'm doomed to carry
that sense of guilt all my life.
And any moment anyone
can poke that guilt at me.
This is what's my own.
Why do you think,
my dear Anna Andreyevna,
I haven't come back
home for 17 years?
Why?
I was afraid.
Well, maybe so.
I was afraid that my own people
would reproach me for my own
misfortune.
But you did return.
And it means you have
overcome your sense of fear,
your sense of guilt.
There you go.
I'm not guilty of anything.
All the more so.
Why then do you doubt your brother?
Or maybe he's a bad man?
No, he's a good man.
Was.
What do you mean, was?
He never answered my letters.
I shall never believe that your own
brother didn't answer your letters.
- Something's wrong here.
- Wait, Tanya.
You're simply tired.
What can we do?
Perhaps you'll have
to begin everything from the start.
After the war, we had to begin
many things from the start.
And what helped us to do that?
The sense of righteousness.
The sense of righteousness.
All you're saying is right.
Everything can be started
all over again.
But you need people
to believe you're right.
Well, not everyone
believes us either so far.
But we are no
worse for that.
You know what?
Let's do it this way.
If you don't want
to meet with him at home,
let's write him a letter
and fix a place for your meeting.
Right, let's write
a letter and mail it.
And appoint a meeting place -
the post office.
If he wants it, he'll come;
if he doesn't, it's up to him.
Mom, what are you talking about?
He's sure to come.
Want a bet?
Ah, Anna Andreyevna,
you're such a wonderful person.
You can read it later, your coffee
is getting cold.
What are you staring at?
Eat your breakfast.
Don?t jump up from the table
before the grownups.
I don't want any more, I'm full.
Eat it.
Eat, old chap.
Look how skinny you are.
As skinny as a water-carrying hag.
Pour me some more.
And why are you looking at me like
this? Did I say something wrong?
No. Everything is right, Petya.
There you go, it was a new tablecloth.
Oh, really.
You're right,
I'm always clumsy with milk.
Just amazing how difficult it is
to keep this house clean.
I'm slaving away,
I'm trying my best...
but I might as well beat my head
against a wall.
Yes, you are
absolutely right.
Well, never mind, you can forgive us
on account of a holiday.
Only on account of a holiday.
Put the knife down.
Stop clowning, Yura!
Someone might scare you and you'll be
like this for the rest of your life.
Listen, old chap,
why do you look so pale and dull?
You didn't flunk yesterday, did you?
- No, I've passed it.
- He's passed it!
How many more exams have you got?
Two more exams and one recitation.
Stop rubbing behind your ear.
Don't roll bread balls.
Yes, you shouldn't,
it's not good manners.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for that!
Now he wiped his lips against me.
There're napkins for that.
Don't say that.
I wiped my lips.
Maybe you need my help?
What else have you got?
Political science?
- Marxism.
- Marxism...
Well, that's a familiar thing.
I'll explain it to you in a jiffy.
Have you got your pr?cis?
Dad, I can pass it on my own.
I cannot find my tie.
Haven't you seen my tie by any
chance, Pyotr Ivanovich?
The black one, with specks.
No, I haven't run
across your tie.
What a nuisance.
I looked all over for it.
- Take mine.
- I'm used to that one.
We have a rule in the choir:
everybody wears a dark tie.
Our precentor is very strict about it.
And today is a special occasion -
the song festival.
Here is your tie.
It was in the bathroom.
Thank you, Valyusha.
Thank you, daughter.
Won't you go, too,
my child?
No, Father, you sing yourself.
Do it without me.
For God's sake, will you
stop muttering?
My dear Sergey Nikolayevich,
what is it you sing there?
We sing all kinds of songs.
Folk songs
and the classics.
I, for one, prefer the classics.
Especially, the chorus from "The Demon".
Rubinstein's opera.
So you prefer the classics.
The Party buildup. Whom are they
raking over the coals this time?
Let's see how vigilant
our foreign friends are?
The colonizers are in fright.
- A letter.
- Give it here.
It's for Dad.
What makes you think it's for Dad?
- It's written so - to Dad.
- What's all this hubbub about?
No hubbub.
A letter for you.
You finished? Go take a walk,
see your granddad off.
Come on, Grandpa.
Valyusha, give me the letter.
- You can read it later.
- Give me the letter.
You know from whom this letter is?
It's from my brother Alyoshka!
He's alive!
So what?
We thought he was killed,
but he is alive.
It's Alyoshka, my brother.
You know him.
No, I don't know your brother.
And you don't know him, either.
How can I not know him?
He's here, you know.
All right.
So he's shown up.
Come here.
Come on.
Let's talk.
What kind of a brother is he to you?
He's been hanging about somewhere
for 17 years, and now he's here.
Have you ever thought about
with whom he consorted over there?
What the cheek the man has
to sneak his way into someone's
family with his claims of kinship.
What the hell do you need him for?
Some character suddenly
arrives from faraway lands.
Who is going to vouch for him?
And where did he come from?
You wrote in all questionnaires
that your brother was killed.
Think about your son.
If I hadn't taken care of you, you
would've been in a lot of trouble.
Don't you dare!
I'm asking you to shut up!
Don't you yell at me! It's you who
should shut up, you hysterical man!
You ninny, worse than a woman!
And he dares raising his voice at me!
And who's made you up?
You forgot about it?
Do you really think that
everything I've knocked up,
I'm going to throw now
at your brother's feet?
I don't care a damn about him
and I don't want to know him.
You can make your choice.
Go to your brother, but then
you can forget about your family.
Or stay in the family, but then you
have no brother and will never have!
What a shame!
Just think what you're saying!
I'd thought about it long ago, dear.
You think it's the first letter?
Your brother has been
blackmailing us for 15 years.
And here he is!
Who invited him?
What do you mean, for 15 years?
Where're those letters?
You think I'd be keeping
that filth in my house?
I've burned them, and this one
will follow them.
Wait a second, I'll give you the drops.
Here, drink it.
Well, I think everything's clear.
Let's go home.
And let's assume that
you've lost your bet to me.
It's just because it's a Sunday.
They may not be at home.
Of course, there's no one at home.
But it's all right.
Everything is all right.
No, it's not all right.
It's absolutely not all right.
Do you have a pen?
- Here.
- Thank you.
- Is the address correct?
- It is. Why?
Mom, I'll go and see them.
No, Tanya.
Come here and sit down.
Yes, I'm going there.
Wait for me here,
I'll be back soon.
Why not? Let her go.
No smoking here.
There's the sign.
Yes, yes.
Is this the Pavlovs' apartment?
Yes.
Who do you want to see?
Are they at home?
Yes, at home. Come in.
- Are you their son?
- Yes. Why?
Come out for a minute.
- What for?
- Come out.
All right.
Close the door.
All right.
- So you're a Pavlov?
- Yes, Yuri Pavlov.
Come here.
All right.
Do you know that
your parents are scoundrels?
How can you say that?
Who are you?
It doesn't matter. What matters
is that your parents are scoundrels.
I don't know.
Can you come down
with me now?
Yes, I can.
Come and I'll tell you something.
I can, but I must fetch my cap.
Though I can go like this.
Yes, of course, you can go like this.
Do you know that you have an uncle?
Uncle?
I got an aunt, but no uncle.
Yes, the point is
that you have an uncle.
Your father's brother,
Alexei Ivanovich Pavlov.
He's been killed.
No, he's alive and he is here now,
in Sevastopol.
- I'll go and tell my father.
- No, you don't have to.
Your father knows that he is here,
but he doesn't want to see him.
Because your father is a coward.
I don't understand.
Now, calm down.
Come on, I'll explain everything.
You see, your father's brother
is a wonderful person.
If he wasn't,
I wouldn't have come.
But I did,
because we can't leave it at that,
it's not fair.
We must not.
Wait, wait...
He knows.
He doesn't want to see him.
You said he'd lived
abroad for 17 years.
Why didn't he come back right away?
And why didn't you
reply to him right away?
It's not so easy to come back if
even your relatives don't reply.
I just asked.
This is our theatre.
Yes, I see.
It's so beautiful here.
Why are we standing?
Let's go.
Why didn't he himself
come to see my father?
How could he if you haven't
answered his letters for 15 years?
We haven't received a single
letter. Do you believe me?
I do.
But you did receive a letter today.
- We did.
- Why didn't your father come then?
This is Grafskaya Pier.
Yes, I see.
What do we do now?
Do you want me to go to him?
I want nothing.
Don't you understand
that your father must go to him?
Where's he now?
Was waiting at the post office.
By now, I guess,
he's gone home with my mother.
Do I want...
Can't you understand
that all this
is not good in principle,
that it's dishonest and shameful?
- One can't do this to a man.
- As foe me, I do understand.
- Let's go somewhere.
- All right.
No, no, you can't smoke.
There's the sign.
Yes, yes.
You know what?
Let's go home.
Yes, let's go.
What shall I do?
He's my father.
Well, my mother...
But my father is a fine man, too.
he's kind and honorable.
Perhaps he's a weak man.
I don't know,
but we must not leave it at that.
Talk to your father.
If you're a really good man,
you'll find the strength to do it.
And if he's a really good man,
he'll understand you.
- I'll see you to your place.
- No, don't.
You better go to your father.
We're leaving tomorrow morning.
All right.
Yura, the address!
- The address.
- Here, write it down.
Where have you been all this time?
What's up?
Dad, we need to talk.
Yes, Yura, we do.
Is she asleep?
I think she's fallen asleep.
She shut herself in.
Come in.
Dad, we can no longer
live like this.
- Like what, Yura?
- The way we live.
It's not good living like that,
Dad, it's vulgar.
What are you talking about, Yura?
How else can we live?
We're no worse than anyone else.
- Please, not now...
- You're right, not now.
Listen, let's leave.
Where for?
Where can we two go, Yura?
Let's move to another city.
Our country is huge.
Or at least to another apartment.
You make it sound so simple.
Another apartment.
Everything is so simple for you.
Nobody will understand us, Yura.
And who's supposed to understand us?
I think that first
we should understand ourselves.
- Ourselves?
- Uh-huh.
To understand is easy.
But how should we act?
Act according your conscience.
How else can one act?
And what do you think
I must do?
First of all you must
go now to your brother,
talk to him, meet with him.
And you will decide together
what's best to do.
Yes, but I don't
even know his address.
She burnt the letter.
Here's the address.
Third window round the corner.
He's waiting for you.
Alexei Ivanovich...
- Pyotr!
- Alyoshka! You're alive!
Alive.
Oh, who would think that!
Come in, I'll open up for you.
I came just for a minute.
I'd better come tomorrow,
and now just for a minute.
Yes, yes, of course.
Just think of it...
How it all turned out.
It's hard.
You know, brother, it's so hard.
Why is it so hard for you, brother?
What is so hard?
Everything is hard.
I've lived an easy life
and didn't see how I was living.
And now I began to think
and see that everything's hard.
Come on, brother.
Don't torture yourself in vain,
go on living as before.
You think so?
You won't be able to live
differently, anyway.
Why not?
You know why.
And don't think of me.
- You've got your life, I mine.
- That's right.
You see?
I just came to take a look at you,
what you're like now.
And what do you say?
I see that you're alive and well.
Well, I have no problems
with my health so far.
And that's great.
But it's late already.
Go home, brother,
before they begin to worry about you.
And tomorrow?
What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow I'll go away.
You're already going?
As for you, you can
do whatever you like tomorrow.
Goodbye, brother.
Go with peace.
Why, it's Yurka.
- What Yurka?
- Yurka Pavlov.
What are you talking about?
Standing by the pole
is your nephew Yurka.
That's what you're like.
Gosh, you're a big man.
I wonder who you look like?
Well, you look like yourself.
This is my mother.
How do you do, Yura.
Go on, and I'll ride along.
Only drive slowly.
- Write to us.
- Yes, of course.
I'd like to write to Uncle Lyosha,
but I don't know the address.
Write to Zaporozhye and you won't
miss. Write poste restante.
Why poste restante?
I'll give the address.
Here.
Come to see us. It's not far.
I may come tonight.
Now I'll see you off and go back,
and tonight I'll come to you.
Yes, come.
It may be ridiculous,
but I feel so nervous now.
We're approaching
the Baidarsky Gate.
I want you
to see it all
as I first saw it,
when I was a little girl.
I experienced then
a complete happiness.
A world full of light and air
opened up before me.
I want you to see it
just as I saw it then.
Look, Tanya. Look!
Oh, it's a pity there's a haze over
the sea now.
It's all right, Mom.
It's all right, darling.
I see it all.
I see it all.
The End