The Union Moujik — Janvier Chouteu-Chando

Boris Petrenkov, a former Soviet apparatchik and engineer, embarks on a train ride in Siberia that stirs his memory of the heyday of the Soviet Union when he championed the construction of the BAM (Baikal-Amur-Mainline) railway line from the northern shores of Lake Baikal to the pacific coast.

He saves the lives of mixed-race Cossack brothers from the hands of Russian skinheads, and then engages his Siberian friends in an exchange that gradually opens the door to the world of his dream. When his buddy Andrei Yeremenko abandons aliyah and returns from Israel, Boris takes him to the Union Tavern and to the epic achievement of their world.

The land Boris cherishes epitomizes the dream of a generation that feels betrayed by the collapse of the Soviet Union, even as it shakes off the legacy of chaos that abounds in the former Soviet Republics. It is a showcase for the rest of the world, yet Boris knows that hope is the only thing they can count on in the post-soviet space.

The reality of post-Soviet Russia deepens Boris's rancor until his dying Australian cousin sets aside ideological differences and contributes to his project to realize a new generation of muzhiks.