Elizaveta Vitkovskaya

A female photographer is on the look out for new material in an unspecified town. She meets far eastern employees who agree to do an interview and a photo-shoot. This shooting session alters the way she sees things and changes the fate of one of the employees.

Three heroines go to the westernmost point of Russia - the Baltic Spit. Pines, sand, dogs, girlish dances, summer carefree. Girls stay overnight on the shore in a tent. During the night, summer is replaced by winter. In the morning, for an unknown reason, the heroines part.

Victor was having a wash in his cabin when the boatswain called him to the phone. Although Victor had already heard: “Nika died”, he shouts all the same: “I can’t hear!”. Victor goes onto the mainland. After two days without sleep he reaches the hospital. When the doctor has finished speaking, Victor indifferently turns away to the window. All the details of this view from the window suddenly feel closer to him. Victor goes outside. The street is fast asleep. The entire town is asleep, as if extinct. But everything is breathing, snoring, muttering in a dream. This sleeping town is like a nightmare. In this nightmare those helplessly asleep are intertwined with the memories of his love. Victor wanders around the town in search of a person who is also, like him, on this side of reality. And he finds him.

Russia, 1917, WWI. This is the story of the 1st Russian Women's Battalion of Death, formed as part of an ill-conceived propaganda ploy by the Russian Provisional Government in late May of 1917.