Two men and a woman happen to meet in a bar. We learn from their conversations both the intriguing and banal details of their lives. But is anyone really telling the truth? From the meat market, to the president's drinking habit or the soviet cloning project, this allegory opposes different aspects of contemporary Russian society. Source

This film is bleak. It's a metaphorical study of Russian society by director Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Dogs, meat, absurd false conversations, weary faces. It's a world devoid of much humanity and full of existential angst and misery. That's not so say the film is poor - it's more rich in misery. I can't describe the feeling is the pit of my stomach after viewing the female protagonist's experience of the funeral of her sister. She travels back to her peasant town and her peasant relatives are so lost in their own world - trapped in their upbringing and environment, that it's indescribably weird and disturbing. You have to see it to believe it. You feel some sorrow for their plight and situation but you're repulsed just as much and you're happy for her - that she escaped even if the world of the city is debauched and cold. Better to live soullessly than live diseased. Not an easy watch but interesting and compelling.

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