Details

he key subplot is the drab uniformity of Brezhnev-era public architecture. This setting is explained in a humorous animated prologue, in which architects are overruled by politicians and red tape (director and animator - Vitaliy Peskov). As a result, the identical, functional but unimaginative multistory apartment buildings found their way into every city, town, and suburb across the former Soviet Union. These buildings are completely uniform in every detail including the door key of each apartment. Following their annual tradition, a group of friends meet at a banya (a traditional public "sauna" bath) in Moscow to celebrate New Year's Eve. The friends all get very drunk toasting the upcoming marriage of the central male character, Zhenya Lukashin (Andrei Myagkov) to Galya (Olga Naumenko). After the bath, one of the friends, Pavlik (Aleksandr Shirvindt), has to catch a plane to Leningrad. Zhenya, on the other hand, is supposed to go home to celebrate New Year's Eve with his fiancée. Both Zhenya and Pavlik pass out. The remaining friends cannot remember which person from their group is supposed to catch the plane -thus they mistakenly send Zhenya on the plane instead of Pavlik.
©Emil Braginsky;© Eldar Ryazanov; ©&℗ IE Vorobev V.A.; ©&℗ Publishing House Soyuz