Strastnoy bulvar (Passion Boulevard)

Vladimir Khotinenko directs this drama that edges drab realism with moments of sublime fantasy, including a talking raven with a passion for vodka and an aging actress who levitates above her balcony. The film centers on ex-actor Andrei Sokolov (played by screenwriter Sergei Koltakov), whose career was wrecked by his love for alcohol. Now working as an apartment fix-it man, he discovers an old address book and tries to enliven his bleak existence by calling old acquaintances. Most of the people he contacts, from his ex-wife who married a failed writer to an ex-dancer whose leg never recovered from an injury, are just as miserable as he is. (Jonathan Crow)