Gromozeka

As teenagers they played together in the band “Gromozeka”. More than three decades later the meanwhile aged ex-friends sit together in the sauna and talk of life. Vasya is a rotund policeman who was long ago assigned to the tedium of dead-end office work as opposed to patrolling the streets where he'd rather be. He lives a joyless existence together with his wife and grown-up son in a cramped flat. Moserov, a taxi driver, has long been deserted by his wife. He lives a lonely existence and doesn’t enjoy a particularly good relationship with his daughter. On one day finding out that she features in porn movies he attempts to put a stop to her “career” using drastic and illegal means. In comparison the surgeon Eduard, with both a wife and lover, appears to find himself in an enviable situation. Spineless as he is however, he can't decide between the two women. Then he's diagnosed with cancer.

The director doesn't portray a particularly flattering image of the everyday life of Russian men who should be in their prime, but instead suffer from differing midlife crises. In the process they appear equally overstrained and disenchanted. He executes his true-to-life film with three playful leading actors and focuses thus not only on the more sombre aspects of the plot, instead enriching the storyline with a healthy dose of deadpan, black humour.