Ermachenko

Peter the Great takes a Russian man of African heritage - Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal - under his wing as the tsar builds his grand navy. After having a disastrous affair in France, Ibrahim vows to never fall in love again, until he sees the daughter of a wealthy boyar. Peter the Great insists the two be married, but Ibrahim goes against the tsar's wishes, refusing to force her to marry him since she doesn't consent. When another man tries to marry her, however, Ibrahim's loyalties and generous nature are put to the test.

A group of drunken young people severely beat the couple in love. Subsequently, Aleksandr Shchetinin died in the hospital after receiving injuries from beatings. The court, chaired by Judge Khromova, is to pronounce the death sentence on one of the four participants in the fight, who committed the fatal blow that led to death.

The film tells about two elderly widows who live in the same house. They are united not only by tragedy, but also by common concern, namely the grave of two unknown soldiers, which they have been guarding for over 30 years. And suddenly the managers of their district decide to turn the grave into a memorial.

The film comprises three cinematic novellas: (1) “And They Arrived at the Peasant’s Hut… or the Adventures of Writer Senya in Search of the Hidden Word,” in which writer Senya draws inspiration for his rural novels from his housekeeper Yermolayevna’s tales; (2) “The Song, or How the Great Louarsab Organized a Choir,” where a city visitor attempts to form a choir of centenarian elders in a Georgian mountain village; (3) “What Is Our Life?! or What Is Our Life?!”—during a musical reenactment of pre-Revolutionary France, a drunken actor’s tardiness forces King Louis XIV (also the theater committee chairman) and the cast to improvise the play’s ending.