SYNOPSIS:

Tatyana is the only child of a widower named Nikolai He is a folk musician, well-known in the town and seriously ill. To honor Nikolai for his musical achievements, his friends have gathered in a restaurant Nikolai tells them all about how dearly he loves his daughter Tatyana…Ending his speech, Nikolai takes out the balalaika and gives it to Tatyana Meanwhile, Igor, an ambitious young man who happened to be present in the restaurant, has overheard the speech Tatyana is an attractive, cheerful young woman, about 30 years old. Igor meets Tatyana. They begin to meet, and before long Igor proposes to Tatyana. Her father dies. Tatyana accepts his marriage proposal and moves in with him in Moscow Igor’s life in Moscow is not comfortable or well-organized But the inconveniences of life do not discourage Tatyana, who believes in her husband She tries to help him the best she can. Dealing with his wife, he tries to show his superiority in every way, smiling condescendingly whenever she gives advice Igor’s business has to do with a travel agency Igor persuades Tatyana to invest all of her money in his business, and to sell the house she has inherited from her father As soon as he gets all her money, Igor’s attitude to Tatyana changes sharply He becomes rude and arrogant, ridiculing her provincial ways, her directness, her child-like sincerity, and the purity of her views He is convinced that only cruel, cunning people free from sentimentality and human warmth can survive in this world Tatyana’s life becomes unbearable She is subjected to ever more frequent humiliations from her husband Igor no longer conceals his dislike of Tatyana In order to prop up his business Igor joins up with some sinister individuals who are engaged in the business of illegally sending Russian girls to brothels in western countries One of the partners in this business learns how Igor feels about his wife and offers him a deal which will kill two birds with one stone: Igor will get rid of his wife, whom he no longer needs; and he will make some money The offer is to sell his wife abroad On the following day Igor is unbelievably polite to Tatyana He asks her to forgive him for his rude behavior toward her in the past, and as a gesture of reconciliation he offers to send her on a trip to America Igor promises to join the travelers at a later date, after taking care of some urgent business in Russia When she arrives in America, Tatyana realizes that she has been tricked But Tatyana gets lucky and flees the brothel Tatyana finds a low-wage job with only one goal in mind: to save enough to pay for her return to Russia Joshua is a homeless man, though he doesn’t push a shopping cart around the streets of the city He owns a car – an old beat-up Chevrolet in which he lives and stores his few belongings Suddenly he hears a woman’s scream He glances out the window and sees a young woman struggling to get away from two young Mexican-American street-level drug pushers He can’t stand to see a woman mistreated that way, and jumps out of the car brandishing a monkey wrench After driving off the attackers, he grabs the woman, puts her in the car and drives her away to safety As it turns out, Josh and Tatyana both have unusual stories, different but in a strange way similar They are both people who have been cruelly deceived by others and have wound up at the margins of society, at the very bottom Full of pity for this Russian stranger with her bizarre past, Josh gives Tatyana temporary refuge in his car Together they pick up and recycle empty bottles and cans to be able to buy a bit of food In the evenings, they sit the car and converse Somehow, on a subconscious level, there arises a certain spiritual attachment between Josh and Tatyana They have similar ideas on loyalty, honesty, and love They are equally sincere in their feelings They become friends without noticing it Josh is revealed to Tatyana as a loyal and devoted companion, who conceals behind his external severity a soft and vulnerable soul He knows very little about Russia Once in a photograph he had seen a cluster of rowan berries from Russia “They were so red,” he says “They must be tasty” “Actually they are bitter,” Tatyana answers to his disappointment She hastens to add that after the first frost, the rowan berries become very tasty Sighing, Josh mentions that he will probably never have then chance to taste them, though he had once thought that anything is possible in this life if you try hard enough Now he is sure that this is not so Tatyana is no longer content to accept what her life has become and the first thing she wants to do is to get her documents back, so that she will be able to return to Russia Josh and Tatyana develop a plan of action Josh goes into the brothel as a client and miraculously finds, in a drawer in the office, a purse containing numerous documents He also grabs whatever else he can get his hands on He swiftly slips into a leather coat hanging by the door to the office and grabs a laptop lying on the desk The friends joyfully celebrate their success On the outskirts of the city, in a quiet and dark area, two tiny lights shine – two candles burning in Josh’s car A bottle of vintage wine makes them tipsy and they laugh, reliving what they have gone through Theirs is a world of two individuals who have been abandoned by everyone else, but who are close to each other, a world inside an old car which now seems spacious, warm, and comfortable….Tatyana aware that there are other young Russian women here who have been taken out of Russia by trickery and whose documents are now in her hands Tatyana realizes what kind of a future is ins store for them In order to find them Tatyana and Josh decide to found a non-profit that will help homeless people Tatyana and Josh, having gone through all the hardships of homeless existence themselves, are in a position to give useful advice to others After a short period of time it becomes clear that Tatyana’s brainchild has grown into a serious and socially useful endeavor The non-profit attracts attention and receives approval from the municipal authorities in the form of financial support Now Tatyana is free to return to Russia In the lobby of the non-profit she founded, at a going-away banquet, Josh returns to Tatyana the balalaika, which has been restored Handing the instrument to her in front of the spectators, he apologizes for the fact that the balalaika looks different now: it had been so badly damaged that the restorer had to add some metal parts for stability and add a pick-up to increase the sound, The strings of the balalaika vibrate, giving off a quite new and unusual, amazingly beautiful sound Tears come to Tatyana’s eyes Josh takes Tatyana to the airport in his old Chevrolet Tatyana asked him to do so herself As he had done before, Josh lights two candles and fills two wine glasses Looking into the widow of the plane as it takes off, Tatyana sees the old Chevrolet, still parked on the side of the road leading to the airport with two tiny lights glowing above the driver’s seat…Walking into the apartment she had once inhabited with Igor, Tatyana knows that she will not spend even one hour there She lacks even the desire for revenge She merely wants to look this man in the eyes one more time...She walks through the wintry streets of Moscow with a light, airy step, exposing her face to the cold wind and smiling at the sun, remote and pale On a warm California evening Josh is sitting at a table, holding in his hands a glass of wine and listening to his favorite music His doorbell rings He opens the door and sees a big bouquet of red Russian rowan berries “I think that everyone’s dream must someday come true especially if someone loves that person,” says Tatyana, peering out from behind the bouquet.