Autumn Marathon 1979

In Leningrad, Andrey Buzykin, Oleg Basilashvili, a middle-aged translator and university lecturer, finds himself stretched between a comfortable but fading marriage to his wife, Nina Natalya Gundareva, and a younger, impulsive love with Alla Marina Neyolova who longs for a future together and a ready-made family. As Andrey tries to keep up appearances, Nina endures his infidelity with a quiet, steadfast patience, while Alla presses him to commit more fully, driven by a desire for security and a shared life. The tension between personal desire and social obligation quietly gnaws at Andrey’s sense of self, tugging him in two directions at once.

Meanwhile, Andrey’s indecision begins to seep into his work. He is dragged into obligations and situations that he would rather resist, and his professional life starts to fray. Morning runs with his Danish colleague, Professor Hansen Norbert Kuchinke, become a small theater of control where Andrey tries to project strength, even as he feels pulled apart by competing loyalties. At work, he is increasingly exposed to invasive interference from Varvara Galina Volchek, a former classmate who meddles in his affairs, complicating both his reputation and his daily routines. The atmosphere at the university grows tenser as deadlines slip and the once-stable routine becomes brittle.

As the family situation deteriorates, Andrey and Nina’s daughter Lena Olga Bogdanova makes a shattering decision of her own. She leaves home, accompanied by her husband, Viktor Dmitri Matveyev, to embark on a two-year work trip that is undertaken without consulting her parents. The move hits Nina hard, cutting deeper into a marriage that already feels frayed at the edges. The shock of Lena’s exit reverberates through the family, underscoring the widening gulf between appearances and reality. Andrey, attempting to confront his own failings, finally confesses his past affair to Nina; yet her reaction is swift and skeptical, treating the confession as just another lie, thrusting the couple further apart.

This turbulent chapter pushes Andrey toward a decisive stance. He stands his ground at work, turning down a lazy student’s request for an easy pass, and even bluntly refuses to shake hands with a colleague he dislikes, signaling a hardening of resolve and a desire to reclaim some measure of control over his life. The acts are small, but they mark a turning point in his self-definition, a choice to stop being pulled in every direction at once.

In the wake of these personal upheavals, Alla calls Andrey, testing whether the relationship can still function amid the upheaval and the changing tides of trust. For Nina, the return of questions from the past collides with new realities, and she reconsiders whether the double life she glimpsed is truly over or if it is only paused for a breath. The couple’s tension remains unresolved, hanging in the balance as the characters navigate a city that seems to grow darker and more labyrinthine by the day.

The film culminates in a quiet, intimate moment that is bathed in the glow of streetlights and the chill of night air. Andrey, having faced his own contradictions, runs through the dimming city alongside Professor Hansen, a shared sprint that becomes a symbolic race toward some unclear future. It’s a moment that blends fatigue, relief, and a hint of possibility, suggesting that while the past may press in, the road forward remains open, even if the path is uncertain.