Perestroika

Time and space are not homogeneous.

In the life of every civilization, every country, every nation and every person

there are special places and special points of time -

unusually important, crucial points.

In my life this special moment, which I'll never forget,

happened in Moscow, Russia, in the spring of 1992,

right after the fall of Communism.

I came back to my native town after 17 years of forced separation.

Moscow was in turmoil, so was I.

Allow me to introduce myself: Alexander Greenberg.

That spring I was turning 50 - time to gather stones.

And it just so happened that at an International Congress on the "structure of the universe"

was taking place in Moscow at the moment.

I am an astrophysicist, so are most of the people important for me.

My entire tiny little world was getting together in the city of my youth.

So I've decided to come to the city to face my past

and to reevaluate my life.

At the point it seemed to be a sound idea.

I was eager to reevaluate.

Reevaluate everything.

Not only my own life but also life of all the other beings populating our planet.

After lunch we will begin our regular sessions, but right now,

before we take a break, we would like to show you a short film.

This film is not a scientific film,

but it does include some footage of our space research,

as well as some visual references

abstracted from the works of numerous astrophysicists.

May we have the shades drawn, please.

Let me introduce to you the main characters of our story.

That woman who keeps looking my way is Helen.

She is my wife. Or, if you prefer, ex-wife.

In any event, she is always threatening to leave me.

I need a life. I need a real life before I am too old.

What's so bad about our life?

You call this a life? Right!

And sometimes she does leave, for a time.

But it looks like she still cares for me.

My drinking seems to worry her.

Well, she had never seen me drinking so much before.

The creator of the film you are about to see,

Jill Stratton, is with us today.

Do you see the beautiful lady standing by the camera?

That is miss Stratton herself.

"The beautiful lady standing by the camera" is my lover, Jill.

Not that we're really lovers. Not now, anyway.

Sasha, what's the matter? I don't understand.

Don't you?

And that is Natasha. In a way, she is also my lover. Ex.

Go. Leave Russia. Your place is out there.

What about you?

What about me?

Even though we are very old friends,

our intimate relationship was brief.

As for the past seventeen years, we not only haven't seen each other,

but have not even corresponded.

But I didn't correspond with anyone in Russia.

While the room is being engulfed by darkness,

I would like to read a brief passage from John Milton's "Paradise Lost".

In this passage, the angel Raphael is speaking to Adam and Eve.

The imposing gentleman at the podium,

is my professor, Doctor Gross.

I have not seen Henrich Gross for the past 17 years either.

"...To ask or search I blame thee not;

for Heaven Is as the Book of God before thee set,

Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn His seasons,

hours, or days, or months, or years.

the rest from Man or Angel the great Architect

Did wisely to conceal, to move His laughter at their quaint opinions wide Hereafter,

when they come to model Heaven, And calculate the stars."

I remember one of my last meetings with Gross

before I left Russia.

Continue your cosmological research for God, and make the bomb - for Caesar.

Well for the last seventeen years

both of us each in the country of his choice

kept calculating the stars for God and building bombs for the Caesars of our choice.

In the past two decades, a microscopic flash of time,

we have been able to reveal so many secrets of the Great Architect

that we cannot look at footage reflecting the results

of this change without utter fascination.

It is debatable how long the Great Architect can continue to conceal his secrets.

If we may remind him of the old saying: "He who laughs last laughs longest."

As in the old days Gross was challenging God himself.

I must admit, I was surprised to see how little he has changed.

Perhaps he has discovered the fountain of youth.

The city beyond the windows is my city,

although until the commencement of our story

I have been away from it for seventeen years.

I was born in this city, and I lived here for many years.

It is a living entity to me, so I hope you are not surprised

that I introduce it as one of the characters of this film.

And this is my planet - Earth.

On the grand astrophysical scale,

a place just as small and cozy as one's home town.

Earth is also one of our characters.

Ah, Home, Sweet Home. One does not choose one's homeland.

Our Universe. The way we "model heaven and calculate the stars" on our computers.

I have spent my whole life trying to understand what limits there are,

and what lies beyond them.

Striving to break through the Iron Curtain hung by God Himself.

Why did you walk out on my film?

I have seen it many times before.

Why did you walk out on your own film?

I have seen it too. You're trying to escape so you can keep getting drunk?

You promised to come help me at the studio.

But you're shooting.

I'm done for the day. Wait here, I'll tell Lynn to pack up alone.

Sasha? Sasha Greenberg?

Oh, you don't recognize me!

It's me - Kostya Ruemin! Remember?

It's a shame to forget your friends!

Let's get together! My wife will make a good dinner. We'll have a good time.

Excuse me. I am sorry. We haven't been introduced, but I know who you are.

I need to discuss something with you. My name is Victor Krymsky.

They're all are over him.

I'm afraid he's going to drink himself into oblivion, and his speech is tomorrow.

It's wonderful

Sasha, how's tomorrow?

He said he'd come to the studio with me. To help me negotiate to the Head of production.

OK, if he's with you, he'll be fine.

Okay, Sasha, let's go.

Hello. My name is Victor Krymsky.

I have a business proposal to discuss with Mister Greenberg.

Sasha!! I heard you were here.

I just dropped everything and here I am!

That's great! That's great!

Don't forget. Tomorrow!

Sasha, we really have to go. We'll miss the Head of production.

I'm the president of cooperative"Knowledge".

Do you have a car? I'll drive you.

We would like to discuss the possibility of working with you.

Excuse me, mister Greenberg is going to a very important meeting right now.

Sasha, How's tomorrow?

I'm Lomova! Asya Lomova! Could I really have aged so much?

This is my second day in Moscow.

So far, I haven't managed to sleep a wink, or to have a single moment to myself.

Helen and I were met at the airport

by my old friends Tolik and Natasha, and, also, Jill.

Jill was already deep into her new environmental documentary project,

so she came to Moscow earlier than last week in search of footage and co-producers.

The whole gang is so excited! Greenberg is coming!

He was the first we knew who emigrated, and now he is the first who came back.

Hard to believe it is really happening.

It seems as if all of Moscow has nothing else to talk about.

Natasha was the prettiest girl in the entire physics department

so, obviously, everybody gravitated towards her.

Every holiday we would gather at her parents' house.

Each of us fell in love with her, more or less.

Oh, It's rare for a woman to be studying physics.

Especially one like you... It was the same at Harvard.

My parents are still alive, they remember you.

They want to have a party Wednesday for the whole gang in honor of your visit.

Like old times.

When I left Moscow 17 years before this moment

I had no inkling or even hope that I would come back here for a visit.

Back then for the first time in decades,

a door had been cracked open in the Soviet Union's Iron Curtain.

Of all the soviet citizens some Jews were allowed to leave the country

to supposedly to unite with their families in Israel.

And everybody knew if you were lucky and could leave,

you'd become "an emigrant" to those left behind.

Officially this word sounded like "An enemy of Russia".

You would never be able to see your birthplace and your friends again.

But recently, under "Perestroika" (Restructuring)

my friends were permitted again to consider me their friend.

Hello.

It's for you. You've been traced, already.

The following day consisted of three dinners and four suppers.

Everybody wanted to see the man returned from beyond.

From where no one they knew had ever returned before.

They wanted to see but strangely enough not to hear.

They were no longer interested in the outside world.

Too many things were happening in their own.

They just elected the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin

and said good-bye to the father of "Perestroika"

the president of disintegrated USSR Mikhail Gorbachev.

Did you vote for Yeltsin?

Yes...

How could you?! Just wait till you've made him a dictator, he'll show you.

You have a better alternative?

You fear there may be a civil war. Well, it's already here.

Gorbachev was the greatest leader of our time!

Look at what he's done in Eastern Europe!

Gorbachev is the same as the rest, only weaker!

He couldn't revive the economy, he couldn't give freedom to the republics!

Gorbachev is a man of compromise, a politician without principle.

He cannot be trusted. I don't know why Americans are so fond of him!

Americans consider compromise a virtue.

Anyway imagine if Gorbachev went ahead with his reforms without compromise, and we'd have chaos.

It seems to me we are on the verge of a collapse.

Perestroika is dead!

Perestroika has just begun.

Perestroika never had a chance.

No one knows how to work anymore.

Lazy, spoiled slaves, all of them!

Master.

All day I waited for your call - it never came.

Tried calling - No answer.

If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed will come to the mountain.

Give me a hug. Ahh.

What's this?