puppets comedy

i don’t understand how you could fall. i wasn’t me… not you? somebody pushed me. lena, i have a surprisefor you. a surprise. heroes die in her books andtheir prototypes die in reality. i was pushed. who pushed you? it was dubrovina.

star media presents calm down! well, well, well… where is it? ‒‚ what is it?‒‚ no, this is not what we need… guys, what are you looking for? the weapon. the weapon? in my house? are you crazy? nika, we think that somebodywas shot from that weapon. yes. dances of the puppets

created by ekaterina kostikova director of photography –alexander yefeshkin art director – svetlana smirnova hello? hello? yes.this is yulia. i don’t know.when do you want me to come? what’s the matter, yulia?why is the vacuum-cleaner in the middle of the room? who called? it was mansurov. martha rudolfovna.he wants me to sit to him for a portrait! how interesting! what did youanswer? you agreed, i hope?

no. i didn’t have time to.i hang up accidentally. call him back and arrange themeeting. why are you staring? i must know when i amnot able to count on you. you are not against it, are you? why would i? he invitesyou not for a black mass, but to sit for a portrait, as i understand. no, no, no. nothing here too. does anybody want some tea? ‒‚ thank you.‒‚ thanks.

you know, serezha, i think thatyulia put the gun in the teapot. i’m sorry. you see, she must havehidden it somewhere here. in your house. there is no other place! makar? ‒‚ vesta! vesta!‒ she found something, give it to me! ‒ maybe you have found something, did you?‒ come on! a great find! is it whatyou were looking for? will you give me a lift?

get in. i don’t want to disappoint you,but i think you’re mistaken. hold this. we’ll have to agree with you.sorry for the mess. this is fine. drop in some other time!i’ll treat you to tea! good luck! good-bye! open the curtains. the sun is shining.

‒ forgive us one more time.‒ this is ok. ‒ i’ll clean up, if you want.‒ no need to. everything is fine. ‒ are you sure?‒ i am. ‒ good-bye, then.‒ yes. good-bye. good luck. ‒ the tea was incredible.‒ thank you. sorry for the troublesonce more. is it ok? it is. everything is fine. it really is. wait! come on! wait. what about my dog?where are you? hey!

i’m sick and tired of you… what have you done? what have you done? nika, i’m sorry but… what did you do, bastard?what are you doing? ‒ i’m very sorry.‒ nika, sorry. ‒ i beg our pardon.‒ he chewed all our pillows too. he doesn’t do it all the time… it’s just… it’s ok. it’s my father’s pillow. here we go!

you called yelena dubrovina.i can’t answer at the moment. leave your messageand i’ll call you back. lena, answer! we need to talk.this is urgent. lena, i know everything. i can help you. lena, don’t keep silent. lena, answer! we shalltalk, this is urgent. i know that people whom you madeyour heroes died in real life just like in your books. the oldferopontova told me everything. she saw the killer. i don’tblame you. i can help you, lena.

lena, please don’t keep silent.please answer the phone! great! beauty, you may chew what you want now! not in my house, please. sorry again. i hope this is whatyou were looking for. we hope so too. good boy! these pomeranianspitzes are clever dogs. yes, they are.

what do you mean? wait, this is the puppy ofthe southern-russian sheep dog! did you really believe that? look, but how… good for you, babkin! it doesn’t look a sheep dog at all. however, it looks justlike a pomeranian spitz. ‒‚ makar!‒‚ stop it, serezha! ‒‚ makar!‒‚ let’s go!

‒‚ makar, what are you doing?‒ come on! makar! good! you did well, animal! nika! serezha, tell me please…why is it important for you to be an expert in dogs? maybeyou shall forget about it. you’re not a cynologist, after all. you’re right. babkin, i’m sick and tired of you!let’s go!

give me the pillow back, please. i’m sorry. good-bye. sorry. yes. it’s nothing. where are you looking? i needyour eyes. your face! good! you’re a goddess! a fairy!where have you been before? how did you come into my life? what? i’m sorry. i just am a bitcold. i am not a fairy, am i? oh, god, forgive me, please!she is cold! forgive me, the idiot!

i’m sorry. we’ll sortit out now. here you go! thank you. you’re sitting for me, but idon’t know anything about you. my story is not very exciting. why? however, you… you’re an artist. it is a different world for me.tell me about yourself! don’t be afraid. it startedlong ago when mum took me to the tretyakov gallery…

what about my portrait? the portrait is… how do you like it? does it look like you? not really. i see you like this. wait for five minutes, please! all right. damn it! damn it! dubrovina! dubrovina! vasya, hi. did youcome to the dubrovins?

who else? they are not home. where are they? olga petrovna went to thepolyclinics in the morning. lena left half an hourago. i saw her myself. where did she go? i don’t know. she doesn’t report to me. let’s go! so, you were going downthe stairs, heard the steps,

turned around and he pushedyou at that moment. here you go. she… it was a woman. can you describe her? i only saw her fleetingly. she had black bushy brows… sunken eyes… what about her hairdo?the color of her hair? i didn’t see. she was in a hat…or in a hood. i didn’t see.

do you have something? does she look like her? very good, babkin!all togoyev’s accounts in offshores are on this flash-cards!his plant got a state order from the ministry of agriculture. now i know where he hid the money. we’ll arrest these accounts and togoyev will getinto prison for long. i have old scores with him…from the 90-ies.

i remember. i was happyto help. good luck! korneyev used to workas a deputy prosecutor. they were working on togoyev and wanted to open acase on him. they failed. the prosecutor was shot in his carby the prosecutor’s office building. don’t worry about oleg borisovitch. if korneyev works on him,he won’t get away. look, makar… what? how did you guess that sakharova kept

compromising materials abouttogoyev in nika’s house? she could have hiddenthem at konetskaya’s place. yulia sakharova lefther friend tserkovnikova. she didn’t take money. she onlyhad a small bag with lingerie and a flash card in her pocket. imagine togoyev’s peoplecatching her in the street. do you know what they’d do with her? yes. they’d take herback to her loving father. exactly. they’d also searchher and find a flash-card.

dad would get rid ofhis problematic daughter. why didn’t i guess about it at once? the reason why she quarreledwith her friend. it was evident! what? sakharova was scandalous. do you remember why they quarreled? because of some trifle. exactly! because of the cleaning-up! sakharova shouted at her friendbecause she cleaned her room. do you think she couldquarrel for no reason at all?

especially with a person you depend on. well? sakharova got scared that nika mightfind her flash-card. do you get it? this is interestingand we shall sort it out. don’t wait for me tonight. levashov was the head ofthe entering committee. he was the man i hada conflict with. and… he said: “forgive me. i was wrong”. it is incredible!

i like that you know how to listen.this is a rare quality. there is some mystery in you…such femininity, such rarity… what skin! god!your skin is so soft. what eyes! let me kiss you… kristina? you asked me to bring you the canvases. i’m sorry. it’s time for me to go. it was some inexhaustiblefountain of eloquence! first i sat for him forthree hours in a row. i got cold and numb.

then he was telling me abouthis life for another three hours. i thought everything wouldbe beautiful as in a movie. a prince on a white horseand absolute happiness. however, he turned out to bea bore. his breath stinks too… it happens. martha rudolfovna, i… why are you here? you should be in the hospitalwith the soup and medicines. i’m going, martha rudolfovna, i’m going.

it is silly to think thata prince will come to you, take you to his palaceand make you happy. nobody can make you happybut for yourself, remember it! beauty is a cover. princes go bald andprincesses become old hags. will we have dinner todayor am i to die of hunger? one second. one second! lena, if you’re home, answer, please! lena, i know whathappened. i can help you.

don’t do it! calm down,calm down… this is it. everything will be fine.calm down, calm down… here, here… all right. i’ll be close by. mummy, i don’t know whatto do. my life is ruined. don’t worry, daughter.he loves you. you’re his wife. this is the most important thing.yulia is nothing more than a fleeting infatuation.artists are infatuated easily… she is not just an infatuation!he is painting her portrait!

she doesn’t even talk to me! it’ll pass soon. everythingwill be as it used to be before. mum, you don’t understand!he fell for this little bitch! that bloody martha and her protage! god, i wish i’d never agreedto drink coffee with her that evening! what evening?what are you talking about? that girl was there… a waiter. she spilled coffee onsomebody’s pants, i think. we argued. i said thatthe girl was very ugly

and martha said thatanyone may become a beauty. then martha brought her to the gallery. roman started hopping around her and decided to paint her portrait. i don’t know what to do, mum! how did you find me? this is how. i visitedall our favorite places. this place is not my favorite. yes. i remembered how youwere writing your “blood oath”.

the hero wanted to commit a suicide. however, he didn’t wantit to look like a suicide. you talked about this place.few people come here. an injection, collapse of the lungs…. the medicine that disappearsfrom blood in 12 hours. when the body is found, no traces of themedicine will be present. you wanted it to look like this. i got scared. i got scaredthat i would come too late.

lena, how could you?you knew that it was not a reason. you said that it was cowardly…even for the heroes of your books. you don’t understand.i killed them. i killed all of them. they were alive, and nowthey are not here anymore, they are dead. all becausei didn’t manage to stop. i was trying, honestly.with that physicist… i told myself that it was thelast time. that he was the last. then i got acquainted with konetskaya. it turned out that itwas stronger than me.

one may say that it worked out fine. however, this is onlytemporary. just for now. how else can i stop this nightmare? tell me if you know! tell me! yes! how can you help me? you can’t! where? come on. we shall talkto somebody. come on. what has happened?they told me that you wanted to talk to me urgently.has something happened?

are you unwell? kristina came. this is great. i’m veryhappy that she remembered about her mother at last. drink! she told me everything! how could you do that to her? how could you? when you broughtthat girl yulia into the house, i asked you why you did it.do you remember? you didn’t answer. today kristina came.

her life is falling to pieces…you planned it all. you presented yulia to mansurov. you saw that she lookedlike kristina and realized that he would fall for her…why did you do it, martha? i did it, because your daughterdoesn’t see anything around her, except for her beloved husband!and you miss her so much! i know it. you see eachother once every two years! why do you dispose ofother people’s lives? people are not puppets!i didn’t ask you about it!

you know, if i waiteduntil you asked me, we’d have died of theold age seven times! valya, this girl does looklike kristina in her youth. yes, i presented her to mansurov.what should i do? look at your sufferings?when did she last congratulate you on your birthday? do you remember? your daughter is a user,a petty selfish gal! i just wanted you to be happy! this is it! you can’t make me happy against my will.

people are not puppets andthis is not a puppet theatre, and you’re not a puppeteer.i love you very much, my clever martha…however, don’t make anything up. life is still cleverer. i came to valentina at thehospital and met kristina there. she was sitting there crying: “mansurov doesn’t talk to me,he is infatuated, what do i do, mum”… this is all because of you! wait. i don’t get it.kristina? his wife?

yes. what does valentina have to do with it? kristina is her daughter. whose? valentina’s. didn’t you know? i see. wait. does that means… i thought that everybodyknew. did you hear that? yulia!

i think this is for you. oh, god! this is thelast thing that i need. yulia! i couldn’t leavewithout seeing you. i’m sorry, roman. i shouldn’t have agreed tosit for you. it won’t work out. wait, yulia. what areyou saying? yulia, yulia! go home. your wife must be worrying. do you think that my wife isa problem? you’re wrong, yulia! your wife is not the problem.the problem is within me.

nobody will make mehappy but for myself. yulia, yulia! well, yelena alexandrovna? think once more.does this face ring a bell? i don’t think so. i don’tunderstand who it is — a man or a roman. it might be anyone. i’m sorry but i can’t help you. a 12-year old boy triedto strangle his brother because he was laughingtoo loud. a 15-year old girl

crushed her granny’shead against a radiator because she didn’t let her go to dances. how nice! i examined her. she is a nice girl. your sakharova who stabbedher neighbor because of a doll… you can’t imagine howmany of such cases exist. what are the reasons? the reasons? first of all, heredity.however, if children grow up

in an unfavorable environment,the risk of relapse grows. members of the family fall victimsof their fits of aggression most often. i see… i analyzed sakharova’s medicalhistory and may tell you: people who are close toher are in constant danger. how often may such fitsof aggression happen? are you interested in the statistics? about 70 %of patientswith such a diagnose experience relapses regularly.she may burst at any minute

for no reason at all.for example, if she gets angry. and she may get angry because of anything. for example, if she is not loved.or if she feels unloved. if her plans are ruined.or if she thinks that her plans are ruined. what is going on? what are you doing, yulia? i’ll explain that to you!you were using me! you don’t care for people! you don’t give a damnfor their feelings!

you’re playing with peopleas if they were puppets! what’s wrong with you? you’re an old hag!people like you shall be killed! yulia, take this away. i thought that there wasnobody worse than my father. yulia, please. it turned out that you’re even worse. my father is a psychopath.he was concussed… please!

…at the war. but you! you were doing it in your sound mind!people like you shall not live! what is going on here? i don’t believe it.this is some nonsense! you stopped writing becauseyour heroes’ prototypes started dying like yourheroes. try to remember how you got to know about it.i read about that in a newspaper. brilliant! can you remember whoshowed that newspaper to you? who knew about youraffairs? whom did you meet?

who were you writing about?whom did you show your rough copies? who was your main critic?who was the first to tell you that an accident happenedwith your former neighbor, that she fell under thetrain in the underground? talk to murasheva. she’ll tellyou who pushed her at the stairs. you may not believe me oryour neighbor. but murasheva! she is not senile. she saw who did it. however incredible it may seem... oh, god! mummy!

this is it. calm down… i don’t understand! who pushedmurasheva from the stairs? no, sakharova orderedher auntie’s murder. however, the executor alreadyhad a bullet in his head when murasheva was attacked! can it be a coincidence?an attempt of robbery? nobody answers. we shallgo and check it out. don’t eat pillows! makar, why are we running? it is not fire!

i have a bad premonition.i’m afraid that sakharova may lose her temper,if she hasn’t lost it yet. one moment… i can’t do it. it was a joke. look, how did you open that door? i’ll show you later. ‒‚ be quiet. they are there.‒‚ be quiet, i tell you! well… calm down, calm down, calm down. i beg you not to doit. put the knife aside.

who are you? my name is makar ilyushin.your father hired me. ‒‚ stand where you’re, makar ilyushin.‒‚ i’m standing. raise your hands, both of you. ‒‚ throw your guns away.‒‚ we’re doing it. further away from you! good boys! what shall i do with you?bad timing! ‒‚ you must have agreed to spoil my life!‒‚ calm down, calm down! first yulia interfered, then you.and it was going so well!

what are you doing? do you know how hard itried to make her trust me? let’s discuss it calmly and… discuss? my fatherwanted to discuss it too. you think that i’m an idiot. well, yulia… we realize that youhad problems with your father… you understand everythingso well, makar ilyushin. you shall know that ilove solving my problems. that’s why i hate it whensomeone creates them for me.

and people do it all the time.first my mother. i told her: “mum, let me go to myfather in moscow”. she said: “no, daughter! sit in yuryev”.when i was in the 8th grade, i escaped to my father to moscow. do you know what thatbitch did, i mean my mum? she turned to the police!the police brought me back home! she was clinging to me all the time!she didn’t want to leave me in peace! she was trying to give me orders.i didn’t have any other choice but to turn her life into hell.

when she decided to die,i didn’t interfere… calm down, calm down. yulia, let her go.she has nothing to do with it. you know, if policecome, they won’t talk… i’m sick and tired of this conversation! first i’ll get rid of the old hag,then of this little fool and then decide what todo with you. is that clear? meanwhile stand still and shut up! leave yulia alone. shehas nothing to do with it.

i can’t. i’m sick and tired of her too. ‒‚ makar!‒‚ hold her! ‒‚ the knife, the knife!‒ how are you, yulia? i’ll call the ambulance. are you ok? no. i can’t live with it. i must get to know who is guilty,why and what happened. i think the conversationwith the psychiatrist explained many things to you…

his explanations were foreseeable. depression that accumulatedduring the years, hard childhood in theorphanage that left my mother with a bouquet of neuroses…an unlucky marriage and me, who became her sole sense of life.this is why she didn’t let me communicate with my fatherand guarded me against men. she used to say thatfamily life was an illusion and love was a real headache.i still don’t understand how it happened that mymother whom i loved so much

became a monster. i didn’tnotice when it happened to her. let’s go. come on. pray, pray and pray some ore.don’t forget about lent. don’t forget that thosein heavens think about you. have no doubts that everythingwill be all right. i promise. this is our predestination.we won’t escape it. this is not scary. believe me. read bible more and pray.pray, pray and pray.

‒‚ i have a good piece of news for you.‒‚ well? togoyev may only becomea deputy of the prison. here you go, my honey! eat! criminal proceedings wereinstigated against him. all his crimes were disclosed.therefore, good-bye, the state council and hello, the prison! his lawyers were jumpingout of their skins but didn’t manage to bail him out. i suggest celebrating it!look at what i have!

what is it? these are two invitationsfor the high fashion week. konetskaya gave them to me asa thank you. can you imagine? she said that we are badly dressed! konetskaya is anenergetic but lonely lady. all her husbands diedand she has no children. she is looking forsomebody to take care of. right. first she gaverefuge to her friend, then a mad niece, and nowshe is thinking about us…

by the way… why lia? what do you mean — “why lia”? why did konetskaya call her niece “lia”? “lia” is a short name of “yulia”. konetskaya’s granny has called so, and yulia was namedafter her… i mean lia. she says that the girl lookedlike her granny very much. this is why she gave her therefuge and wrote a testament. she wanted to have children very much!

this is what she got! yes, she did. do you knowthat the girl still lives with konetskaya? no. who is that girl? where is she from? she is nobody. she is anordinary 20-year old girl from around moscow. her fateis difficult. her mother died. her father was drinking.he was concussed and started threatening her with a gun. she couldn’t stand itand escaped from her home.

some driver picked her up andgave her a lift to the city. she found a job at a caf?where konetskaya met her. she is making a big fuss overher now. the girl is lucky. yes. she is. do you want it? fetch! what a silly dog! father, wait, please!i wanted to talk to you. my mother is here. i wanted to ask you… do you want me to hear her confession? no. i think i’m the onewho needs to confess.

all right. i’m listening. you see, mum harmed peoplefor the sake of my happiness. do you understand? it seemedto her that i’d be happy if she protected mefrom the large world, if she tied me to her.she loved me more than life. and what happened? this is not love. this is selfishness. human selfishness often hidesunder the mask of good intentions. or indulgence of one’s fears.

every person has hisor her predetermination. god is a compass that helps to find it. if a person gets lost on his life road,his life loses its sense. without a sense, one may easilybecome a puppet in the hands of evil forces. every singleday and hour we make our choice — to wander in the fog of ourdoubts and fears or to go to the inner light. please understand —only god may determine a person’s fate. it is importantfor him what a person wants. one can’t live another person’s life…

however, one may try to live his own. this is banal! this is boring. you shall learn to work with colors.where is the line? here it is. this is primitive. i sawit 1000 times! where is you? where is your sight, where is your face? you’re going to enterthe textiles academy. what will you show? these? you won’t be able to sell suchclothes even at the market!

this is terrible, whata nightmare! this is… this is better. and this is fine too. really? do you really think so? did you call the taxi? are we going to the defile today? ‒‚ we are.‒‚ it’s half past three! ‒‚ we’re going!‒‚ call the taxi! i’m running! end of episode four