Kharms (2017) - full transcript
Music and silence. Creativity and impotence. Contemplation and buffoonery. He considers himself a genius but the publishers refuse to print his works. He loves women but they don't always understand him. Constantly without money and out of touch with reality. The elegant fop Daniil Yuvachov names himself Kharms- a name just as effective as his appearance. An habitué of unending literary get-togethers and a lover of scandal. Living in society he is completely separate from it. Kharms throws down a gauntlet to his time, audaciously hurling himself into the vortex of reality, just as vague and arbitrary, with the same contradictions, as represented by his spirit. In the atmosphere of his ramshackle flat and in the editorial office of the children's magazines «Chizh» and «Yozh», the streets of Leningrad, the embankments and rooftops, there unfolds an amazing battle between the man and himself, with his defects, his passions and with the whole world in which he lives as though he were locked in a cage. Will he manage to cope with societal pressure, love's mismatches, the impossibility of creation?
with support from the Russian
Ministry of Culture
Hubert Bals Fund
International Film Festival Rotterdam
Lithuanian Film Center
Macedonian Film Agency
in association with
Studio Avtor (Russia)
Tremora (Lithuania)
Manufaktura Production (Macedonia)
and General Producer
Andrei Sigle
present
a film by
Ivan Bolotnikov
Danya? Marina?
Winter’s here.
Time to turn up the heat.
Don’t you think?
Beaten again.
Let me down,
Put down the gangway.
I’m off to find
a church
to pray.
KHARMS
They were transferred two weeks ago,
but it still stinks.
Why’s the light on in the cell?
Who’s there?
The sick guy, some writer.
Oh. Write him up.
- I did.
- Good.
- Turn off the light?
- Leave it on. What the hell.
What’s your name?
Yuvachev-Kharms.
Daniil Ivanovich.
Ivanovich. Date of birth?
December 30,
1905.
- Address?
- Nadezhdinskaya 11, apartment 8.
Status.
Married.
Where do you work?
I write verse. I’m a poet.
Inventory.
August 23, 1941.
I, NKVD officer, on the basis of an arrest
warrant for Yuvachev-Kharms, note:
Inventory: 22 letters,
5 notebooks on various subjects...
...marriage certificate,
writer’s union card...
...1912 edition of the New Testament
with margin notes,
white metal pocket watch,
two matchboxes with initials...
...one ping pong ball.
It will be a story about a miracle worker
living in our time
who doesn’t work miracles.
He knows he can work miracles.
But he doesn’t.
Life is victorious over death somehow.
Letter to Esther.
Feast your eyes on this dictionary
and show your respect.
That’s not right.
Leonid, you don’t respect
the knowledge of mankind?
- Not that’s in the dictionary.
- I think Leonid’s right.
I’m sure:
The Renaissance was Europe’s tragedy.
Let’s kiss.
So what are you saying?
That after the tragic turn of events
that history calls the Renaissance...
knowledge as such ceased to exist.
And what we call "science" was born.
- What’s is knowledge as such?
- What’s science?
Knowledge as such is...
Direct and complete knowledge
of how the world works.
It is supernatural and disconnected
from what we call "reason".
Science counts the circumstantial
and derivative.
Still, at the basis of all scientific
discoveries is what you call supernatural:
intuition.
Intuition is accidental and hit or miss.
Besides, you just proved my point.
- Boil it all?
- All of it.
Float on, little boat,
to the plovers of the steppes.
Float a woatawiverasota...
Seeveechirpotomasta!
Danya, Daniil Ivanovich,
you owe me money since summer.
- You promised to pay up, Danya boy.
- I remember.
But you promised last summer.
I can’t wait no more.
I just can’t wait no more.
Listen to this:
An actor loved his mother
and a certain curvy girl.
He loved them each in his own way.
He gave the girl most of his salary
and his mother went hungry.
The girl ate and drank for three.
The actor’s mother slept
on the floor in the hall
while the girl had two fine rooms.
The girl had four coats.
The mother had one.
Thank you, Natalia Nikolaevna.
The actor took that one coat
from his mother
and made it into a skirt for his girl.
Finally the actor toyed with the girl.
He didn’t toy with his mother;
his love for her was pure.
He feared his mother’s death,
but not the girl’s.
When his mother died, the actor wept.
But when the girl fell out the window
and died, too, the actor didn’t cry.
He found another girl.
So it turns out that a mother is like
a rare stamp that can’t be replaced.
What do you think?
Who wrote it?
Daniil Yuvachev-Kharms.
Quite talented, I think.
Lord, have mercy.
You pests!
I’ll get you all!
I’m telling you, get a look at him. Yum.
- Nice.
- Sure is.
Sno! Evgeny Eduardovich!
Hello!
- Hello, Daniil Ivanovich.
- Did you find a zither?
Yes!
Bought it for 11 rubles.
Come over tonight.
All right, or you come here.
Who’s that with you?
My nephew.
I talked his ears off about you.
Well, so he did. Why not?
About people like you!
Do you play, too?
Not at all.
Actually, I can’t stand it.
But your poems and your play
about Elizabeth Bam -
I really like them. I wanted to meet you.
Where’d you read them?
At the publishing house.
I read until the rooster crowed.
There was no rooster in my book.
He bought wine for tonight.
Come over.
Wine’s good.
- If I don’t come over, come to my place.
- One way or the other.
We’ll bring wine.
I only truly loved once.
That was Esther.
Her name means star.
She wasn’t just a wife
or the woman I loved.
She was more.
She was part of all I thought and did.
I called her the window through which
I looked at the sky and saw a star.
Esther...
Esther, listen to this:
Like swallows the days fly by,
And we fly like butterflies.
The clock marks time in taps,
And I sit in my night caps.
Days fly by like shot glasses,
We fly high above the grasses.
Lights shine in the sky afar,
And we fly like those stars.
Danya, what stars?
What lights?
What shot glasses?
Shot glasses?
On the beach you see harmony –
that’s where it thrives.
First a person feels like a white
hot dog with red spots.
He’s embarrassed.
Then he stops thinking about it.
He nonchalantly walks around naked,
with dignity.
That stays with him even in winter
when he’s in a suit.
Shura, I saw this girl.
She was in a bathing suit,
standing to the side and didn’t see me.
She kept rubbing her hips.
I fell in love.
You fall in love with
anyone in a bathing suit.
I only fell in love twice on the beach.
But that’s not the point.
The point is: what do I do now?
- Find out where she lives.
- I already did.
- Have a taste.
- Thanks!
You’re fast.
Fast, but shy.
I can’t just walk up to a woman and say,
"Hello, I saw you naked today".
Brilliant! I’d add "almost".
- Why almost?
- Almost naked.
Hey, Mister, you an American?
No, he’s an Inca.
Get out of here!
That’s the second one today.
Adults disappear,
but the kids just multiply.
- Comrades, there’s enough for everyone!
- No butting in line!
- Citizens! You weren’t in line.
- When? Where?
- You weren’t in line. You just came.
- You?
- Not me. You.
- It was them!
He was in line. I’m sure of it.
He stepped away and then left.
He left, but not after.
No, first he stepped away
and then he left.
What are you talking about?
He didn’t leave afterwards.
- We walked up?
- Yes.
- He was here?
- Yes.
- He stepped away and then left.
- There you go again.
He stepped away but not afterwards.
I swear: first he stepped away
and then he left.
- Not afterwards.
- Afterwards!
Not afterwards
because he didn’t leave at first.
That’s your opinion.
He left after he stepped away.
- Not afterwards.
- Oh, the line’s gone.
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov.
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov.
Wait... I’m Citizen Kuznetsov, right?
I got a big lump on my head.
Yes, that’s right!
So, I’m Citizen Kuznetsov
and I left my house and went...
I went to the store to buy...
To buy...
What the heck?
I forgot what I went to buy.
- I think the problem’s the flower.
- What’s wrong with the flower?
Not the flower so much as the place.
The place where you’re going to
with the flower.
You don’t think that getting your
passport is an event to dress up for?
- Stop!
- What?
It’s Bobov.
I borrowed four rubles and
he’s asked for it twice now.
He wants to buy trousers.
- Hello, Daniil Ivanovich.
- Sno, help me out!
What’s his name?
Speaking of him, I promised
to get money today.
I sure don’t have any.
Come on!
"I’m at home working.
Don’t bother me".
Fedya! Fedya!
What?
You son of a bitch,
you have the nerve to ask what?!
Fedya!
What do you want?
You dare to ask what I want?
Son of a bitch.
Fedya!
You ask what’s wrong?
- I’ll knock you one so hard you'll fly...
- Where?
Into the john!
Danya!
- Danya!
- Yes, Papa!
- Come here.
- Just a minute.
Kharms...
- Oh you, Fedya.
- Are you nuts or what?
- Say that again!
- Not for nothing.
Who do you think you are?
That’s just it, you know.
- Hello.
- Hello. Yes, Papa?
- Go take a walk.
- All right.
Well...
I read it.
I said it once and I’ll say it again:
You’ve gone off the rails.
What you write is just awful.
Papa, we’ve discussed this.
I don’t mean that.
I know that I’m old and stupid.
That my literary taste stopped
with Count Tolstoy.
That’s not it.
Your writing isn’t just awful,
it’s disastrous.
It’s the end of the world. Chaos.
You’ll drown in it.
Because you’re not God, Danya!
Papa.
Most importantly, you’re not deaf
and blind to this.
You are rationally and consciously
making reality irrational.
- Wordplay.
- What?
- You made a play on words.
- Danya!
What, Papa?
I know I’m not God.
I don’t threaten the foundations.
They’re fine.
- I’m interested in their manifestation.
- That red vest.
Right now I can’t afford a new one.
That’s just it.
You don’t have money.
You aren’t getting published,
your wife left you.
You’re poor and useless.
That’s not true, Papa.
My poems are published
in a children’s magazine.
I left Esther.
- And now I’m off to the publishers’ to...
- Kharms!
They’re calling you.
...to get paid.
- Kharms!
- Why are they always shouting?
What, they can’t climb up the stairs?
Danya!
Good God!
- I’m sorry, Papa. I’ve got to go.
- Go.
But I tell you:
As long as you’re Kharms,
you’ll be poor.
"The needy shall not always be forgotten:
the expectation of the poor
shall not perish forever".
It’s amazing that you still remember.
When you buy a bird,
see if it has teeth.
If it does, it’s not a bird.
- What is it then?
- I don’t know. Let’s go see.
Let’s go then.
Danya, listen to me.
Be bolder.
- Am I Citizen Kuznetsov?
- Yes!
Kuznetsov, right?
Shura?
Do you call this art?
The great Vvedensky himself!
- Hello, Mr. Marshak.
- Hello.
- I’m broke.
- Try getting an advance.
I already tried.
People say that the most
important man is the cashier.
- They’re right. He didn’t even listen.
- Then only tomorrow or the day after.
I’m sorry to interrupt.
- Hello, Daniil Ivanovich.
- Hello.
This is urgent, they’ve been calling.
Oh, yes, of course.
I made up a new Pushkin story.
I wanted to try it out on an old hand.
Well?
Well...
Once Petrushevsky broke
his watch and sent for Pushkin.
Pushkin comes, looks at the watch
and puts it back on the table.
"What do you say?" Petrushevsky asks.
"What can one say?" replies Pushkin.
"Stop, watch!"
Well?
How’d it go?
Well...
Like this.
"Please immediately
advance me 200 rubles for a new series
of children’s verse and stories".
They bring me a telegram.
Naturally, I’m worried.
Maybe something
happened to him in Central Asia.
I open it. It says: "Saw elephant. Stop".
Two days later I get another telegram.
I think it’s some emergency for sure.
I open and it says:
"Saw five mules".
And later: "Met two yaks".
I call a zoologist I know
and ask how many species of animal
are there in Central Asia.
You know what he said?
If we leave out all the spiders
and snakes... 132 and a half.
So I send him a telegram:
"Save money. Stop.
At end of trip send one. Stop.
With totals. Stop".
Open Sesame!
We welcome you as representatives
of the new public.
What can I do for you?
I am the writer Puzyrev.
And I am the artist Bobyrev.
Well, Shura?
Well, what?
No one has anything.
I even asked Obernibesov.
We’re impoverished.
- What?
- Nothing.
Last night in a restaurant
I saw a horrible clock.
One hand was a knife, the other – a fork.
Strange.
- And?
- Nothing.
He ate out,
but the clock – he made that up.
The rain’s letting up.
I’ve realized
that I shouldn’t sniff ether.
How did you come to this realization?
First, it makes me sick.
- Second...
- Look who’s there.
Oh, Anna Akhmatova! Hello!
- Hello.
- Hello.
And then second,
ether isn’t a door. It’s a keyhole.
It’s not good to peep
through a keyhole. You can’t see.
Third, looking at you in those
moments is revolting.
Waving arms, flapping lips,
and sounds like a horn.
So what if I flap my lips?
A mystery on high is revealed
and he goes on about flapping lips.
Have you ever seen a shaman?
Oh, don’t start in about
those shamans of yours.
You’ve never seen them either.
Besides, shamans aren’t the point.
Give me a smoke.
What’s the point?
The point is...
your mystery on high.
And if it’s revealing itself,
...I said "if" it’s revealing itself,
it’s revealing just an edge, one side.
- Of course.
- You don’t know which side.
At least there’s an edge.
How can you apply that edge?
What can you do with it?
You think Nostradamus
didn’t know what he was doing.
That’s right.
He could see individual specks.
Now those specks are being joined,
not by him – by his descendants.
- You want it all at once?
- I think it’s possible.
I even know for whom.
Why? What about Adam
and the prophets?
Wait!
Shura!
Let me see!
Hold on to me!
- Take this.
- I’ve got it.
Damn.
It floated off. Let me go.
There’s one!
It sunk!
How much?
Five!
It’s torn.
Come on, let’s go.
We’ll get them downstream.
- It’s a miracle.
- Let’s go!
- Shura.
- What?
Drinking again!
- Go away.
- Drinking again!
- Well I never...
- Please go.
Cheers.
A monk goes into a crypt and
shouts at the bones, "Christ is risen!"
- And they say...
- "Verily He is risen!"
Over time a person loses his shape
and becomes a ball.
And when he’s a ball,
he loses all his desire.
What are you...
- Damn! That’s our beer!
- Where were you looking?
- You put the hat on them!
- I put on the hats but I didn’t see them.
How is that even possible?
I put the hats on,
but I didn’t see them.
You’re pulling one over on me.
You put the hats on.
- Now you’re pulling one over on me.
- I didn’t see them, really.
That’s one for the books.
Shura, buy me a drink.
- In a minute.
- Got it.
Is there anything on earth so...
significant that it could change
how things unfold on earth and in space?
Yes.
What?
It’s...
It’s...
it’s....
"Esther WINDOW that..."
- Hello.
- Good day.
Hello.
Kitty cat, I’m off.
Misha....
So, Shura, you drank it all without me.
Like usual.
My dear sir, how dare you
talk to me in that tone!
My dear sir, my tone is in response
to your inappropriate comments.
My dear sir, your behavior
leaves me no choice.
My dear sir, your behavior
leaves me no choice.
- Shura lost!
- Why?
Because, my dear sir, you know why,
my dear sir. You ran out of fantasy.
You repeated him,
but it was very convincing.
Olga!
I’ll bet she’s a med student.
Vvedensky, you act
like nothing happened...
- What happened?
- Meanwhile...
Tanya, you tell him.
- Alas, poor Shura.
- He lost.
Now we’ll put on a blindfold,
twirl him and take him...
- Good day, comrades!
- Obernibesov!
Good day.
- Come with us!
- I’d be delighted.
- Come with us.
- Let’s go.
You go down and we’ll go up.
Let’s go up on the roof.
Take it off!
- Shura!
- Are you crazy?
Danya!
Comrades, that’s not funny!
Danya!
I’ll be damned! I forgot my name.
Who’d have thought?
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov!
- Kuznetsov?
- Yes!
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov!
I’ll be damned.
I’m dying!
It’s murder only when the victim
is smashed like a pumpkin.
We aren’t guilty of a wayfarer’s death.
He had time to say, "I’m dying".
We are only witnesses
to his sudden death.
Get up, you oaf! Wake up!
- You’re so heavy.
- Leave me alone!
Move the glasses closer.
The word "death" isn’t here.
- Look at time and space.
- How about a joke?
That’s what I said – chatter
instead of direct answers.
And the uncertainty,
like 1,000 years ago.
But if art doesn’t ask
these questions, what is it worth?
We must forge ahead
and bring it to life.
Okay! Let’s bring it to life!
Get married, Yakov.
You can’t imagine how great it is.
- That’s right!
- You’re all great!
- May I kiss you?
- I didn’t mean you!
I agree!
- Let me have a kiss!
- Get off me!
On the dining table lies
the world’s cadaver in crème brûlée.
It smells of rot.
Some fools went forth to multiply
Others take poison.
The dry sun, light and comets...
settled wordlessly on objects.
Oaks bowed their crowns
and the air was fetid.
Movement, heat and
certainty lost all their dignity.
Faith flaps its frozen wing
above the human world.
A swallow shot from a pistol
grips the tip of ideas in its beak.
Everyone has gone mad.
The world is rotten, the air is fetid.
The world is a cock
that has lost its head.
We’re out of vodka.
We need to buy some.
How does a group of friends
get formed?
How do people find each other?
It looks like it’s chance,
but it always happens.
We don’t think with our forehead
or brain.
We think with the parietal lobe,
a special part of the brain.
We should have our own newspaper.
That’s for Nikolai. I want my own theater.
I’d like to be theater director.
You ought to feel like people
depend on you.
When you have power
and the right to execute people...
you’ve got an advantage over others.
Last night I sat at my desk
and smoked a lot.
Before me lay blank
sheets of paper to write on.
But I didn’t know what to write.
I didn’t even know
if it should be verse or a story,
or criticism.
I didn’t write anything and went to bed.
But I didn’t sleep.
I wanted to know what to write.
In my mind I went through
all the literary genres,
but I couldn’t find mine.
Maybe it was one word,
or maybe I should write a whole book.
I asked God for a miracle –
to know what to write.
But I began to want to smoke.
I only had four cigarettes left.
It would be good to save two –
no, three – for the morning.
I sat on the bed. I smoked.
I asked God for a miracle.
Any miracle at all.
I turned off the lamp and looked around.
It was all like usual.
Nothing needed to change in my room.
The change was needed in me.
- So did you hear?
- About what?
- Can you imagine it?
- Imagine what, for heaven’s sake?
- Just listen to this.
- I’m listening already.
- Well... Koro... Koroleva.
- You’re talking nonsense.
- Him... in there, too.
- What in where?
- In there. Philandering with Alisa.
- Philander how?
- He’s in love.
- Obernibesov?!
- That’s just it. Obernibesov.
- Apollon Obernibesov?
Yes! Can you imagine it?
Excuse me, you said, "Holmes"?
- You flatter me.
- I’ve got a headache.
I’m not in great shape either.
Last night I woke up and blood
and milk came out of my nose.
How could that be?
I said, "Kharms".
Kharms.
Right. Your works cannot be
printed in our publishing house.
Thank you very much.
Volodya lost his mind,
and so did Sergei.
- She’s not at all attractive.
- And Eldygin lost his mind.
- A mouse!
- In your mousetrap!
Get rid of that thing!
Hello.
I’m here for Olga.
Olga’s not home.
I’m her sister.
- When will she be back?
- I don’t know.
May I ask... your name?
Marina.
Well, maybe you’d like
to come with me?
Sure!
- Wait a sec.
- I’ll wait.
- I’m ready.
- So am I.
Here.
Over there?
What’s that?
- Yes, there.
- There? Okay.
What is it?
- Look at the little fish!
- Nice little fish. Let him go.
- We won’t fry him.
- Okay. Bye!
Chop.
Chop.
Chop.
Chop.
- To you.
- To you.
Evdokim Osipovich,
don’t say the word, "chop".
Chop.
Evdokim Osipovich!
Chop.
- How long can this go on?
- Fine. I won’t do it again.
- Chop.
- You promised not to say "chop".
Fine, fine...
- Danya!
- Thank you.
Read it.
Who are you?
The house superintendent?
Just read it.
It’s an official document.
If they ask me, what do I say?
To the housing board,
Dzerzhinsky district, Leningrad.
Autobiography.
I, Daniil Ivanovich
Yuvachev-Kharms,
was born of caviar.
There was almost a terrible
misunderstanding.
My uncle came right after
the spawning season.
He loved to eat.
He spread me on bread.
He poured a glass of vodka...
Let me have it!
He spread me on bread
and poured a glass of vodka.
Luckily, he was stopped in time.
It took long to gather me up.
A fish with four whiskers
swam around me.
I cried, and the fish cried.
I told you!
Here you are.
We’re the Red Cavalry –
the best in the world!
Songs will be written,
tales will be told.
Something-something...
when the weather’s still,
Something... marching into battle.
Lead on, Budeny, take us up that hill,
At planes and tanks
our sabers will rattle!
- Sasha!
- Yes sir!
- Go play!
- Yes sir!
War’s coming.
What matters are the maneuvers.
If a government is like a human body,
in case of war,
I want to live in the heel.
Daniil Ivanovich,
what do you see here, please?
A piece of paper.
And on it?
A shadow.
That’s all?
Nothing.
Do you hear voices?
Yes.
How about now?
Yes.
What voices do you hear?
Yours.
That’s all?
For now.
And at other times?
Sometimes I hear messengers.
What do those messengers tell you?
They came once,
but I didn’t know who they were.
The clock clicked
and I thought it was broken.
Then I looked.
The hands were moving.
The minute hand showed nine,
the hour hand – four.
So it was quarter to four.
I felt a draft.
I was scared and
thought to drink some water.
The water would help.
Next to me on the desk
was a pitcher of water.
I put out my arm and took it.
And then I realized
I’d been visited by messengers.
I was afraid to drink the water,
afraid I’d drink them.
But why’s that?
Water is a liquid and
messengers aren’t.
Then I forgot about the water
and looked for the messengers.
But what did they look like?
Then I remembered
that they looked like water.
What’s water like?
I stood and thought,
stood and thought.
I don’t know for how long.
Then I looked at the clock,
and the minute hand showed nine,
the hour hand – four.
- So it was quarter to four. So it was...
- Thank you, Daniil Ivanovich.
You’re free to go.
And I started to get changed.
Because I was going out.
You’re free to go. Thank you.
Good-bye.
Yuvachev.
Not fit for military service.
Put down the gangway.
I’m off to find a church to pray.
Danya,
I had a son...
Kolya.
I saw mountain tops, endlessly high
Pitchers of wine full to the brim.
The world, like snow, is magnificent.
I saw cold mountain streams.
I saw storm’s brutal gaze,
The wind, high and placid,
And the barren hour of death.
Shura, that’s marvelous.
Shura?
Shura!
Please look.
- Danya...
- Please be quiet.
Please be quiet.
- I love you.
- Stop it.
I love you.
Love you.
I’m getting married.
God help us.
Let’s catch rats.
- But we don’t have any.
- Let’s catch them anyway.
- Okay then.
- Let’s.
Let’s!
Where are you...
...rats?
There’s one!
Hold on.
One, two...
One, two, three...
Got it!
Marina!
No-no-no...
No!
Like this.
- Like this.
- No.
No, like this.
No, not like that.
Like this.
Take a look.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- What’s the time?
- See for yourself.
But there are no hands.
It’s a quarter to.
A quarter to what?
A quarter to what?
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Danya, where are you going?
- Where are you going?
- How many times do I need to tell you?
Don’t ask me where I’m going!
When will you be back?
Don’t wait up! I don’t know!
What’s her name?
Bon chance, mon amour!
Daniil Ivanovich, pay me back.
Danya! Pay back the money
you owe me!
"It all ended splendidly.
The brothers realized that every walk
must end with a talk".
"Drink porridge and a trunk".
"Zero is the divine deed".
At least it’s not the "divine seed".
Ench? Write it that way?
Eight men sat upon a bench,
and my tale comes to an ench.
Is that all?
I’m sorry, but no.
On the river sails a boat,
it sails from far away.
On the boat are sailors,
the bravest of the brave.
They’ve got little ears
and great long tails
Just the cat, only the cat,
makes them shake...
- ...and quale.
- Good-bye, Daniil Ivanovich.
No, before it was
Tolstoyans and Nietzscheists.
- Now who’s in charge?
- Who?
The house superintendent.
You need strength to fulfill your calling.
And if you don’t have it?
If I don’t want to be a glade of grass
that wilts and then is cut and dried.
If I want to break out of this dream
that everyone calls life?
And see the world the way it really is.
Then you’ve got to suffer, Kharms.
You have to suffer, burn misfortune.
"Burn the misfortune around you".
- I’ve got to go, Sno.
- Daniil Ivanovich...
My nephew is in the KGB.
I think he’s following you.
I know. I guessed it long ago.
You must leave this city.
This city awaits a terrible fate.
Leave it...
Olga!
Marina!
Marina!
- Hi!
- Hello!
- Did you see your Mom?
- Yes, I said good-bye.
- Time to kill the enemy?
- It’ll be over in a month!
Autumn’s here.
Time to turn the heat on.
What do you think?
If I were to seriously consider
your comments...
...I think it’s time to turn the heat on.
Do you think winter will cold or warm?
Given that summer was rainy,
winter will be cold.
When summer is rainy,
winter is always cold.
I’m never cold.
You’re absolutely right.
You’re never cold.
That’s your nature.
- I don’t get chilled.
- Ouch.
Ouch, what?
My face hurts.
Why?
I just don’t know.
- Marina, is that you?
- Yes.
- You’re speaking so quietly.
- No, I’m not.
- Where’s Danya? In bed?
- Yes, he’s asleep.
- He sleeps constantly!
- Stop shouting.
- He’s doing nothing again.
- That’s not true.
- What’s he doing?
- His father died a month ago.
I’m sorry. I didn’t know.
Do you have enough food?
Yes, we do.
- Do you have food? I’ll come over.
- I said we have enough to eat.
- I’ll come and bring something.
- Tell me about grandma instead.
Forget about grandma!
You don’t have a ruble to your name!
He’ll get some soon.
He’s working and will get paid.
- Oh, please - where is he working?
- Why are you shouting?
Because I’m worried about you!
I know everything!
You do not.
Olga, you’re just a silly woman.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five
Six.
Seven.
Seven.
One, two, three, four, five, six...
Eight.
Eight men sat upon a bench...
Now your tale comes to an ench.
No, finish your cigarette.
Let’s go!
Get going.
Let’s go.
Danya, Danya...
Where are you, Marina?
Now you see the coin...
Now you don’t!
- Wow!
- So there.
I wrapped up a tiny packet of bread.
But I couldn’t give it to him.
But it’s for Danya!
I went to every prison,
but he’s not anywhere.
He’s not on their lists.
He disappeared.
I told everyone where I was going.
I thought I wouldn’t make it.
The snow on the river was over my head.
Why me?
Why me?
Why couldn’t I give it to him?
Is there anything on earth
so significant
that it could change
how things unfold on earth
and on other worlds?
Yes! What is it?
It’s...
it’s...
it’s...
We’ll go to the woods to live.
We’ll only take the Bible
and Russian fairy tales.
During the day we’ll move
so no one sees us.
When it grows dark,
we’ll find a cottage.
If there’s someone living there,
we’ll ask for food.
To thank him for food
and hearth, I’ll tell fairy tales.
First of all,
I don’t have a thing to wear.
My felt boots are too old
and you can’t get new ones.
You go, and I’ll stay.
I won’t go anywhere without you.
Are there miracles?
I’d like to know the answer
to that question.
Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (Yuvachev)
was arrested in August 1941.
Shura – Alexander Vvedensky,
was arrested in September 1941.
Date and place of death - unknown.
Nikolai Oleinikov was arrested
in the summer of 1937
and executed in November.
Leonid Lipavsky died at the front
in the first months of war.
Nikolai Zabolotsky was arrested
in March 1938,
released in 1944,
and returned to Moscow in 1946.
Yakov Druskin stayed in Leningrad
during the siege
and saved the archives
of Kharms and Vvedensky.
The archives were the basis
for publications of their works.
Esther Rusakova was arrested in 1936
and died in a camp in Magadan in 1943.
The Nazis forced Marina Malich-Durnovo
to Germany.
She escaped to France
and died abroad in 2002.
Ministry of Culture
Hubert Bals Fund
International Film Festival Rotterdam
Lithuanian Film Center
Macedonian Film Agency
in association with
Studio Avtor (Russia)
Tremora (Lithuania)
Manufaktura Production (Macedonia)
and General Producer
Andrei Sigle
present
a film by
Ivan Bolotnikov
Danya? Marina?
Winter’s here.
Time to turn up the heat.
Don’t you think?
Beaten again.
Let me down,
Put down the gangway.
I’m off to find
a church
to pray.
KHARMS
They were transferred two weeks ago,
but it still stinks.
Why’s the light on in the cell?
Who’s there?
The sick guy, some writer.
Oh. Write him up.
- I did.
- Good.
- Turn off the light?
- Leave it on. What the hell.
What’s your name?
Yuvachev-Kharms.
Daniil Ivanovich.
Ivanovich. Date of birth?
December 30,
1905.
- Address?
- Nadezhdinskaya 11, apartment 8.
Status.
Married.
Where do you work?
I write verse. I’m a poet.
Inventory.
August 23, 1941.
I, NKVD officer, on the basis of an arrest
warrant for Yuvachev-Kharms, note:
Inventory: 22 letters,
5 notebooks on various subjects...
...marriage certificate,
writer’s union card...
...1912 edition of the New Testament
with margin notes,
white metal pocket watch,
two matchboxes with initials...
...one ping pong ball.
It will be a story about a miracle worker
living in our time
who doesn’t work miracles.
He knows he can work miracles.
But he doesn’t.
Life is victorious over death somehow.
Letter to Esther.
Feast your eyes on this dictionary
and show your respect.
That’s not right.
Leonid, you don’t respect
the knowledge of mankind?
- Not that’s in the dictionary.
- I think Leonid’s right.
I’m sure:
The Renaissance was Europe’s tragedy.
Let’s kiss.
So what are you saying?
That after the tragic turn of events
that history calls the Renaissance...
knowledge as such ceased to exist.
And what we call "science" was born.
- What’s is knowledge as such?
- What’s science?
Knowledge as such is...
Direct and complete knowledge
of how the world works.
It is supernatural and disconnected
from what we call "reason".
Science counts the circumstantial
and derivative.
Still, at the basis of all scientific
discoveries is what you call supernatural:
intuition.
Intuition is accidental and hit or miss.
Besides, you just proved my point.
- Boil it all?
- All of it.
Float on, little boat,
to the plovers of the steppes.
Float a woatawiverasota...
Seeveechirpotomasta!
Danya, Daniil Ivanovich,
you owe me money since summer.
- You promised to pay up, Danya boy.
- I remember.
But you promised last summer.
I can’t wait no more.
I just can’t wait no more.
Listen to this:
An actor loved his mother
and a certain curvy girl.
He loved them each in his own way.
He gave the girl most of his salary
and his mother went hungry.
The girl ate and drank for three.
The actor’s mother slept
on the floor in the hall
while the girl had two fine rooms.
The girl had four coats.
The mother had one.
Thank you, Natalia Nikolaevna.
The actor took that one coat
from his mother
and made it into a skirt for his girl.
Finally the actor toyed with the girl.
He didn’t toy with his mother;
his love for her was pure.
He feared his mother’s death,
but not the girl’s.
When his mother died, the actor wept.
But when the girl fell out the window
and died, too, the actor didn’t cry.
He found another girl.
So it turns out that a mother is like
a rare stamp that can’t be replaced.
What do you think?
Who wrote it?
Daniil Yuvachev-Kharms.
Quite talented, I think.
Lord, have mercy.
You pests!
I’ll get you all!
I’m telling you, get a look at him. Yum.
- Nice.
- Sure is.
Sno! Evgeny Eduardovich!
Hello!
- Hello, Daniil Ivanovich.
- Did you find a zither?
Yes!
Bought it for 11 rubles.
Come over tonight.
All right, or you come here.
Who’s that with you?
My nephew.
I talked his ears off about you.
Well, so he did. Why not?
About people like you!
Do you play, too?
Not at all.
Actually, I can’t stand it.
But your poems and your play
about Elizabeth Bam -
I really like them. I wanted to meet you.
Where’d you read them?
At the publishing house.
I read until the rooster crowed.
There was no rooster in my book.
He bought wine for tonight.
Come over.
Wine’s good.
- If I don’t come over, come to my place.
- One way or the other.
We’ll bring wine.
I only truly loved once.
That was Esther.
Her name means star.
She wasn’t just a wife
or the woman I loved.
She was more.
She was part of all I thought and did.
I called her the window through which
I looked at the sky and saw a star.
Esther...
Esther, listen to this:
Like swallows the days fly by,
And we fly like butterflies.
The clock marks time in taps,
And I sit in my night caps.
Days fly by like shot glasses,
We fly high above the grasses.
Lights shine in the sky afar,
And we fly like those stars.
Danya, what stars?
What lights?
What shot glasses?
Shot glasses?
On the beach you see harmony –
that’s where it thrives.
First a person feels like a white
hot dog with red spots.
He’s embarrassed.
Then he stops thinking about it.
He nonchalantly walks around naked,
with dignity.
That stays with him even in winter
when he’s in a suit.
Shura, I saw this girl.
She was in a bathing suit,
standing to the side and didn’t see me.
She kept rubbing her hips.
I fell in love.
You fall in love with
anyone in a bathing suit.
I only fell in love twice on the beach.
But that’s not the point.
The point is: what do I do now?
- Find out where she lives.
- I already did.
- Have a taste.
- Thanks!
You’re fast.
Fast, but shy.
I can’t just walk up to a woman and say,
"Hello, I saw you naked today".
Brilliant! I’d add "almost".
- Why almost?
- Almost naked.
Hey, Mister, you an American?
No, he’s an Inca.
Get out of here!
That’s the second one today.
Adults disappear,
but the kids just multiply.
- Comrades, there’s enough for everyone!
- No butting in line!
- Citizens! You weren’t in line.
- When? Where?
- You weren’t in line. You just came.
- You?
- Not me. You.
- It was them!
He was in line. I’m sure of it.
He stepped away and then left.
He left, but not after.
No, first he stepped away
and then he left.
What are you talking about?
He didn’t leave afterwards.
- We walked up?
- Yes.
- He was here?
- Yes.
- He stepped away and then left.
- There you go again.
He stepped away but not afterwards.
I swear: first he stepped away
and then he left.
- Not afterwards.
- Afterwards!
Not afterwards
because he didn’t leave at first.
That’s your opinion.
He left after he stepped away.
- Not afterwards.
- Oh, the line’s gone.
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov.
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov.
Wait... I’m Citizen Kuznetsov, right?
I got a big lump on my head.
Yes, that’s right!
So, I’m Citizen Kuznetsov
and I left my house and went...
I went to the store to buy...
To buy...
What the heck?
I forgot what I went to buy.
- I think the problem’s the flower.
- What’s wrong with the flower?
Not the flower so much as the place.
The place where you’re going to
with the flower.
You don’t think that getting your
passport is an event to dress up for?
- Stop!
- What?
It’s Bobov.
I borrowed four rubles and
he’s asked for it twice now.
He wants to buy trousers.
- Hello, Daniil Ivanovich.
- Sno, help me out!
What’s his name?
Speaking of him, I promised
to get money today.
I sure don’t have any.
Come on!
"I’m at home working.
Don’t bother me".
Fedya! Fedya!
What?
You son of a bitch,
you have the nerve to ask what?!
Fedya!
What do you want?
You dare to ask what I want?
Son of a bitch.
Fedya!
You ask what’s wrong?
- I’ll knock you one so hard you'll fly...
- Where?
Into the john!
Danya!
- Danya!
- Yes, Papa!
- Come here.
- Just a minute.
Kharms...
- Oh you, Fedya.
- Are you nuts or what?
- Say that again!
- Not for nothing.
Who do you think you are?
That’s just it, you know.
- Hello.
- Hello. Yes, Papa?
- Go take a walk.
- All right.
Well...
I read it.
I said it once and I’ll say it again:
You’ve gone off the rails.
What you write is just awful.
Papa, we’ve discussed this.
I don’t mean that.
I know that I’m old and stupid.
That my literary taste stopped
with Count Tolstoy.
That’s not it.
Your writing isn’t just awful,
it’s disastrous.
It’s the end of the world. Chaos.
You’ll drown in it.
Because you’re not God, Danya!
Papa.
Most importantly, you’re not deaf
and blind to this.
You are rationally and consciously
making reality irrational.
- Wordplay.
- What?
- You made a play on words.
- Danya!
What, Papa?
I know I’m not God.
I don’t threaten the foundations.
They’re fine.
- I’m interested in their manifestation.
- That red vest.
Right now I can’t afford a new one.
That’s just it.
You don’t have money.
You aren’t getting published,
your wife left you.
You’re poor and useless.
That’s not true, Papa.
My poems are published
in a children’s magazine.
I left Esther.
- And now I’m off to the publishers’ to...
- Kharms!
They’re calling you.
...to get paid.
- Kharms!
- Why are they always shouting?
What, they can’t climb up the stairs?
Danya!
Good God!
- I’m sorry, Papa. I’ve got to go.
- Go.
But I tell you:
As long as you’re Kharms,
you’ll be poor.
"The needy shall not always be forgotten:
the expectation of the poor
shall not perish forever".
It’s amazing that you still remember.
When you buy a bird,
see if it has teeth.
If it does, it’s not a bird.
- What is it then?
- I don’t know. Let’s go see.
Let’s go then.
Danya, listen to me.
Be bolder.
- Am I Citizen Kuznetsov?
- Yes!
Kuznetsov, right?
Shura?
Do you call this art?
The great Vvedensky himself!
- Hello, Mr. Marshak.
- Hello.
- I’m broke.
- Try getting an advance.
I already tried.
People say that the most
important man is the cashier.
- They’re right. He didn’t even listen.
- Then only tomorrow or the day after.
I’m sorry to interrupt.
- Hello, Daniil Ivanovich.
- Hello.
This is urgent, they’ve been calling.
Oh, yes, of course.
I made up a new Pushkin story.
I wanted to try it out on an old hand.
Well?
Well...
Once Petrushevsky broke
his watch and sent for Pushkin.
Pushkin comes, looks at the watch
and puts it back on the table.
"What do you say?" Petrushevsky asks.
"What can one say?" replies Pushkin.
"Stop, watch!"
Well?
How’d it go?
Well...
Like this.
"Please immediately
advance me 200 rubles for a new series
of children’s verse and stories".
They bring me a telegram.
Naturally, I’m worried.
Maybe something
happened to him in Central Asia.
I open it. It says: "Saw elephant. Stop".
Two days later I get another telegram.
I think it’s some emergency for sure.
I open and it says:
"Saw five mules".
And later: "Met two yaks".
I call a zoologist I know
and ask how many species of animal
are there in Central Asia.
You know what he said?
If we leave out all the spiders
and snakes... 132 and a half.
So I send him a telegram:
"Save money. Stop.
At end of trip send one. Stop.
With totals. Stop".
Open Sesame!
We welcome you as representatives
of the new public.
What can I do for you?
I am the writer Puzyrev.
And I am the artist Bobyrev.
Well, Shura?
Well, what?
No one has anything.
I even asked Obernibesov.
We’re impoverished.
- What?
- Nothing.
Last night in a restaurant
I saw a horrible clock.
One hand was a knife, the other – a fork.
Strange.
- And?
- Nothing.
He ate out,
but the clock – he made that up.
The rain’s letting up.
I’ve realized
that I shouldn’t sniff ether.
How did you come to this realization?
First, it makes me sick.
- Second...
- Look who’s there.
Oh, Anna Akhmatova! Hello!
- Hello.
- Hello.
And then second,
ether isn’t a door. It’s a keyhole.
It’s not good to peep
through a keyhole. You can’t see.
Third, looking at you in those
moments is revolting.
Waving arms, flapping lips,
and sounds like a horn.
So what if I flap my lips?
A mystery on high is revealed
and he goes on about flapping lips.
Have you ever seen a shaman?
Oh, don’t start in about
those shamans of yours.
You’ve never seen them either.
Besides, shamans aren’t the point.
Give me a smoke.
What’s the point?
The point is...
your mystery on high.
And if it’s revealing itself,
...I said "if" it’s revealing itself,
it’s revealing just an edge, one side.
- Of course.
- You don’t know which side.
At least there’s an edge.
How can you apply that edge?
What can you do with it?
You think Nostradamus
didn’t know what he was doing.
That’s right.
He could see individual specks.
Now those specks are being joined,
not by him – by his descendants.
- You want it all at once?
- I think it’s possible.
I even know for whom.
Why? What about Adam
and the prophets?
Wait!
Shura!
Let me see!
Hold on to me!
- Take this.
- I’ve got it.
Damn.
It floated off. Let me go.
There’s one!
It sunk!
How much?
Five!
It’s torn.
Come on, let’s go.
We’ll get them downstream.
- It’s a miracle.
- Let’s go!
- Shura.
- What?
Drinking again!
- Go away.
- Drinking again!
- Well I never...
- Please go.
Cheers.
A monk goes into a crypt and
shouts at the bones, "Christ is risen!"
- And they say...
- "Verily He is risen!"
Over time a person loses his shape
and becomes a ball.
And when he’s a ball,
he loses all his desire.
What are you...
- Damn! That’s our beer!
- Where were you looking?
- You put the hat on them!
- I put on the hats but I didn’t see them.
How is that even possible?
I put the hats on,
but I didn’t see them.
You’re pulling one over on me.
You put the hats on.
- Now you’re pulling one over on me.
- I didn’t see them, really.
That’s one for the books.
Shura, buy me a drink.
- In a minute.
- Got it.
Is there anything on earth so...
significant that it could change
how things unfold on earth and in space?
Yes.
What?
It’s...
It’s...
it’s....
"Esther WINDOW that..."
- Hello.
- Good day.
Hello.
Kitty cat, I’m off.
Misha....
So, Shura, you drank it all without me.
Like usual.
My dear sir, how dare you
talk to me in that tone!
My dear sir, my tone is in response
to your inappropriate comments.
My dear sir, your behavior
leaves me no choice.
My dear sir, your behavior
leaves me no choice.
- Shura lost!
- Why?
Because, my dear sir, you know why,
my dear sir. You ran out of fantasy.
You repeated him,
but it was very convincing.
Olga!
I’ll bet she’s a med student.
Vvedensky, you act
like nothing happened...
- What happened?
- Meanwhile...
Tanya, you tell him.
- Alas, poor Shura.
- He lost.
Now we’ll put on a blindfold,
twirl him and take him...
- Good day, comrades!
- Obernibesov!
Good day.
- Come with us!
- I’d be delighted.
- Come with us.
- Let’s go.
You go down and we’ll go up.
Let’s go up on the roof.
Take it off!
- Shura!
- Are you crazy?
Danya!
Comrades, that’s not funny!
Danya!
I’ll be damned! I forgot my name.
Who’d have thought?
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov!
- Kuznetsov?
- Yes!
I’m Citizen Kuznetsov!
I’ll be damned.
I’m dying!
It’s murder only when the victim
is smashed like a pumpkin.
We aren’t guilty of a wayfarer’s death.
He had time to say, "I’m dying".
We are only witnesses
to his sudden death.
Get up, you oaf! Wake up!
- You’re so heavy.
- Leave me alone!
Move the glasses closer.
The word "death" isn’t here.
- Look at time and space.
- How about a joke?
That’s what I said – chatter
instead of direct answers.
And the uncertainty,
like 1,000 years ago.
But if art doesn’t ask
these questions, what is it worth?
We must forge ahead
and bring it to life.
Okay! Let’s bring it to life!
Get married, Yakov.
You can’t imagine how great it is.
- That’s right!
- You’re all great!
- May I kiss you?
- I didn’t mean you!
I agree!
- Let me have a kiss!
- Get off me!
On the dining table lies
the world’s cadaver in crème brûlée.
It smells of rot.
Some fools went forth to multiply
Others take poison.
The dry sun, light and comets...
settled wordlessly on objects.
Oaks bowed their crowns
and the air was fetid.
Movement, heat and
certainty lost all their dignity.
Faith flaps its frozen wing
above the human world.
A swallow shot from a pistol
grips the tip of ideas in its beak.
Everyone has gone mad.
The world is rotten, the air is fetid.
The world is a cock
that has lost its head.
We’re out of vodka.
We need to buy some.
How does a group of friends
get formed?
How do people find each other?
It looks like it’s chance,
but it always happens.
We don’t think with our forehead
or brain.
We think with the parietal lobe,
a special part of the brain.
We should have our own newspaper.
That’s for Nikolai. I want my own theater.
I’d like to be theater director.
You ought to feel like people
depend on you.
When you have power
and the right to execute people...
you’ve got an advantage over others.
Last night I sat at my desk
and smoked a lot.
Before me lay blank
sheets of paper to write on.
But I didn’t know what to write.
I didn’t even know
if it should be verse or a story,
or criticism.
I didn’t write anything and went to bed.
But I didn’t sleep.
I wanted to know what to write.
In my mind I went through
all the literary genres,
but I couldn’t find mine.
Maybe it was one word,
or maybe I should write a whole book.
I asked God for a miracle –
to know what to write.
But I began to want to smoke.
I only had four cigarettes left.
It would be good to save two –
no, three – for the morning.
I sat on the bed. I smoked.
I asked God for a miracle.
Any miracle at all.
I turned off the lamp and looked around.
It was all like usual.
Nothing needed to change in my room.
The change was needed in me.
- So did you hear?
- About what?
- Can you imagine it?
- Imagine what, for heaven’s sake?
- Just listen to this.
- I’m listening already.
- Well... Koro... Koroleva.
- You’re talking nonsense.
- Him... in there, too.
- What in where?
- In there. Philandering with Alisa.
- Philander how?
- He’s in love.
- Obernibesov?!
- That’s just it. Obernibesov.
- Apollon Obernibesov?
Yes! Can you imagine it?
Excuse me, you said, "Holmes"?
- You flatter me.
- I’ve got a headache.
I’m not in great shape either.
Last night I woke up and blood
and milk came out of my nose.
How could that be?
I said, "Kharms".
Kharms.
Right. Your works cannot be
printed in our publishing house.
Thank you very much.
Volodya lost his mind,
and so did Sergei.
- She’s not at all attractive.
- And Eldygin lost his mind.
- A mouse!
- In your mousetrap!
Get rid of that thing!
Hello.
I’m here for Olga.
Olga’s not home.
I’m her sister.
- When will she be back?
- I don’t know.
May I ask... your name?
Marina.
Well, maybe you’d like
to come with me?
Sure!
- Wait a sec.
- I’ll wait.
- I’m ready.
- So am I.
Here.
Over there?
What’s that?
- Yes, there.
- There? Okay.
What is it?
- Look at the little fish!
- Nice little fish. Let him go.
- We won’t fry him.
- Okay. Bye!
Chop.
Chop.
Chop.
Chop.
- To you.
- To you.
Evdokim Osipovich,
don’t say the word, "chop".
Chop.
Evdokim Osipovich!
Chop.
- How long can this go on?
- Fine. I won’t do it again.
- Chop.
- You promised not to say "chop".
Fine, fine...
- Danya!
- Thank you.
Read it.
Who are you?
The house superintendent?
Just read it.
It’s an official document.
If they ask me, what do I say?
To the housing board,
Dzerzhinsky district, Leningrad.
Autobiography.
I, Daniil Ivanovich
Yuvachev-Kharms,
was born of caviar.
There was almost a terrible
misunderstanding.
My uncle came right after
the spawning season.
He loved to eat.
He spread me on bread.
He poured a glass of vodka...
Let me have it!
He spread me on bread
and poured a glass of vodka.
Luckily, he was stopped in time.
It took long to gather me up.
A fish with four whiskers
swam around me.
I cried, and the fish cried.
I told you!
Here you are.
We’re the Red Cavalry –
the best in the world!
Songs will be written,
tales will be told.
Something-something...
when the weather’s still,
Something... marching into battle.
Lead on, Budeny, take us up that hill,
At planes and tanks
our sabers will rattle!
- Sasha!
- Yes sir!
- Go play!
- Yes sir!
War’s coming.
What matters are the maneuvers.
If a government is like a human body,
in case of war,
I want to live in the heel.
Daniil Ivanovich,
what do you see here, please?
A piece of paper.
And on it?
A shadow.
That’s all?
Nothing.
Do you hear voices?
Yes.
How about now?
Yes.
What voices do you hear?
Yours.
That’s all?
For now.
And at other times?
Sometimes I hear messengers.
What do those messengers tell you?
They came once,
but I didn’t know who they were.
The clock clicked
and I thought it was broken.
Then I looked.
The hands were moving.
The minute hand showed nine,
the hour hand – four.
So it was quarter to four.
I felt a draft.
I was scared and
thought to drink some water.
The water would help.
Next to me on the desk
was a pitcher of water.
I put out my arm and took it.
And then I realized
I’d been visited by messengers.
I was afraid to drink the water,
afraid I’d drink them.
But why’s that?
Water is a liquid and
messengers aren’t.
Then I forgot about the water
and looked for the messengers.
But what did they look like?
Then I remembered
that they looked like water.
What’s water like?
I stood and thought,
stood and thought.
I don’t know for how long.
Then I looked at the clock,
and the minute hand showed nine,
the hour hand – four.
- So it was quarter to four. So it was...
- Thank you, Daniil Ivanovich.
You’re free to go.
And I started to get changed.
Because I was going out.
You’re free to go. Thank you.
Good-bye.
Yuvachev.
Not fit for military service.
Put down the gangway.
I’m off to find a church to pray.
Danya,
I had a son...
Kolya.
I saw mountain tops, endlessly high
Pitchers of wine full to the brim.
The world, like snow, is magnificent.
I saw cold mountain streams.
I saw storm’s brutal gaze,
The wind, high and placid,
And the barren hour of death.
Shura, that’s marvelous.
Shura?
Shura!
Please look.
- Danya...
- Please be quiet.
Please be quiet.
- I love you.
- Stop it.
I love you.
Love you.
I’m getting married.
God help us.
Let’s catch rats.
- But we don’t have any.
- Let’s catch them anyway.
- Okay then.
- Let’s.
Let’s!
Where are you...
...rats?
There’s one!
Hold on.
One, two...
One, two, three...
Got it!
Marina!
No-no-no...
No!
Like this.
- Like this.
- No.
No, like this.
No, not like that.
Like this.
Take a look.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- What’s the time?
- See for yourself.
But there are no hands.
It’s a quarter to.
A quarter to what?
A quarter to what?
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Danya, where are you going?
- Where are you going?
- How many times do I need to tell you?
Don’t ask me where I’m going!
When will you be back?
Don’t wait up! I don’t know!
What’s her name?
Bon chance, mon amour!
Daniil Ivanovich, pay me back.
Danya! Pay back the money
you owe me!
"It all ended splendidly.
The brothers realized that every walk
must end with a talk".
"Drink porridge and a trunk".
"Zero is the divine deed".
At least it’s not the "divine seed".
Ench? Write it that way?
Eight men sat upon a bench,
and my tale comes to an ench.
Is that all?
I’m sorry, but no.
On the river sails a boat,
it sails from far away.
On the boat are sailors,
the bravest of the brave.
They’ve got little ears
and great long tails
Just the cat, only the cat,
makes them shake...
- ...and quale.
- Good-bye, Daniil Ivanovich.
No, before it was
Tolstoyans and Nietzscheists.
- Now who’s in charge?
- Who?
The house superintendent.
You need strength to fulfill your calling.
And if you don’t have it?
If I don’t want to be a glade of grass
that wilts and then is cut and dried.
If I want to break out of this dream
that everyone calls life?
And see the world the way it really is.
Then you’ve got to suffer, Kharms.
You have to suffer, burn misfortune.
"Burn the misfortune around you".
- I’ve got to go, Sno.
- Daniil Ivanovich...
My nephew is in the KGB.
I think he’s following you.
I know. I guessed it long ago.
You must leave this city.
This city awaits a terrible fate.
Leave it...
Olga!
Marina!
Marina!
- Hi!
- Hello!
- Did you see your Mom?
- Yes, I said good-bye.
- Time to kill the enemy?
- It’ll be over in a month!
Autumn’s here.
Time to turn the heat on.
What do you think?
If I were to seriously consider
your comments...
...I think it’s time to turn the heat on.
Do you think winter will cold or warm?
Given that summer was rainy,
winter will be cold.
When summer is rainy,
winter is always cold.
I’m never cold.
You’re absolutely right.
You’re never cold.
That’s your nature.
- I don’t get chilled.
- Ouch.
Ouch, what?
My face hurts.
Why?
I just don’t know.
- Marina, is that you?
- Yes.
- You’re speaking so quietly.
- No, I’m not.
- Where’s Danya? In bed?
- Yes, he’s asleep.
- He sleeps constantly!
- Stop shouting.
- He’s doing nothing again.
- That’s not true.
- What’s he doing?
- His father died a month ago.
I’m sorry. I didn’t know.
Do you have enough food?
Yes, we do.
- Do you have food? I’ll come over.
- I said we have enough to eat.
- I’ll come and bring something.
- Tell me about grandma instead.
Forget about grandma!
You don’t have a ruble to your name!
He’ll get some soon.
He’s working and will get paid.
- Oh, please - where is he working?
- Why are you shouting?
Because I’m worried about you!
I know everything!
You do not.
Olga, you’re just a silly woman.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five
Six.
Seven.
Seven.
One, two, three, four, five, six...
Eight.
Eight men sat upon a bench...
Now your tale comes to an ench.
No, finish your cigarette.
Let’s go!
Get going.
Let’s go.
Danya, Danya...
Where are you, Marina?
Now you see the coin...
Now you don’t!
- Wow!
- So there.
I wrapped up a tiny packet of bread.
But I couldn’t give it to him.
But it’s for Danya!
I went to every prison,
but he’s not anywhere.
He’s not on their lists.
He disappeared.
I told everyone where I was going.
I thought I wouldn’t make it.
The snow on the river was over my head.
Why me?
Why me?
Why couldn’t I give it to him?
Is there anything on earth
so significant
that it could change
how things unfold on earth
and on other worlds?
Yes! What is it?
It’s...
it’s...
it’s...
We’ll go to the woods to live.
We’ll only take the Bible
and Russian fairy tales.
During the day we’ll move
so no one sees us.
When it grows dark,
we’ll find a cottage.
If there’s someone living there,
we’ll ask for food.
To thank him for food
and hearth, I’ll tell fairy tales.
First of all,
I don’t have a thing to wear.
My felt boots are too old
and you can’t get new ones.
You go, and I’ll stay.
I won’t go anywhere without you.
Are there miracles?
I’d like to know the answer
to that question.
Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (Yuvachev)
was arrested in August 1941.
Shura – Alexander Vvedensky,
was arrested in September 1941.
Date and place of death - unknown.
Nikolai Oleinikov was arrested
in the summer of 1937
and executed in November.
Leonid Lipavsky died at the front
in the first months of war.
Nikolai Zabolotsky was arrested
in March 1938,
released in 1944,
and returned to Moscow in 1946.
Yakov Druskin stayed in Leningrad
during the siege
and saved the archives
of Kharms and Vvedensky.
The archives were the basis
for publications of their works.
Esther Rusakova was arrested in 1936
and died in a camp in Magadan in 1943.
The Nazis forced Marina Malich-Durnovo
to Germany.
She escaped to France
and died abroad in 2002.