Viktor Ryzhakov takes charge of the Sovremennik theatre after the death of Galina Volchek, who led the troupe for almost half a century and enjoyed absolute authority. For the theatre’s first new production, the new artistic director chooses a play about a family whose members have ceased to understand each other. While working on the play, the director and actors become more and more like the characters in the future production, and find it increasingly difficult to find mutual understanding within their “theatrical family.”
This film is not about Oleg Yankovsky in the usual sense: not a biography of a great actor, not a review of roles. And not the sharp facts from his personal life. Although it's all in the film: a dramatic fate, unknown pages of biography. Like any great actor, he possessed a secret - he did not tell both in the movies and in life. But his main gift was not even acting. Yankovsky was talented at making people fall in love with him. I wanted to look at him again and again: that's why they loved him and still love him.
Oleg Yefremov was one of the most beloved actors and directors in Russia. He was the founder of the Sovremennik (Contemporary) Theatre and later became the artistic director of the Moscow Art Theatre. The film shows him in a moment of extreme dramatic tension: Yefremov has decided to split the repertory company into two. His aim is to re energize a stagnant group of actors and move them away from an artistic "dead end". The company, split into supporters and detractors discusses the situation on very heated terms. The situation mirrors the overall climate of a country and a society shaken by the changes brought about by perestroika.
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