My Favorite Clown 1986

Sergey Oleg Menshikov Синицын, a young circus clown, makes a life-changing decision to adopt a six-year-old orphan, Vanya Ilya Tyurin. The scheme seems simple at first, but it quickly stirs up a storm at home. Lesya, his wife who has faced infertility for years, is torn between warmth for the child and the weight of her own doubts. Under pressure from her mother, who boasts about her renowned academician husband, Lesya begins to oppose the adoption, and the couple’s mounting tensions edge toward divorce while the circus world keeps spinning around them.

On the road, Sergey and his best friend and partner, Roman Vladimir Ilin, are juggling a fresh act for an upcoming major circus tour. The arrival of Vanya adds both joy and strain to their dynamic, and Roman, along with his wife Alisa, steps in to help care for the boy when the workload becomes overwhelming. Vanya’s questions about his mother grow more frequent, and Sergey answers with the quiet line that she is away, a simple explanation that leaves Vanya searching for a real sense of belonging.

As the tour’s debut approaches, Vanya falls seriously ill, and Sergey is forced to stay behind to nurse him. The crisis intensifies when Vanya’s condition requires a blood transfusion from a rare blood type, a medical hurdle that tests the family’s fragile balance. In the middle of this, Sergey’s past life flickers back into view: he once had a romance with acrobat Polina Tatyana Dogileva. Their relationship ended after a reckless rumor circulated by the strongman Ryumin about Polina’s supposed affair with a German animal trainer during a tour. Although they separated, Polina’s feelings for Sergey linger, and she remains a pivotal, if complicated, figure in the story.

Remembering Polina, Alisa reaches out to her, and Polina agrees to lend a hand when Vanya’s life is on the line. Yet Polina does not mince words about Sergey; she makes it clear what she thinks of him, even as she steps forward to help. The tension between love, pride, and responsibility comes to a head as the family confronts a possible reunion, a crisis of trust, and a child who is learning to measure the love that surrounds him.

In the quiet hours by Vanya’s bedside, Polina’s presence becomes a haunting, and the boy’s question—“Mom, is that you? Have you come back?”—lands with a heavy, almost sacred resonance. The scene captures the film’s core: the ache of wanting family, the costs of loyalty, and the stubborn hope that love, in all its imperfect forms, can still find a way to heal.

Mom, is that you? Have you come back?