Operation ‘Happy New Year’! 1996

On New Year’s Eve, a diverse cast of characters finds themselves in a hospital trauma ward, each arriving under wildly different circumstances and all tangled together by the oddball chaos of a holiday gathering gone awry. The day begins with Sergey Olegovich Savenko, a writer of erotic novels, arriving with both wrists broken after a failed bondage experiment, a detail that foreshadows the film’s mix of crude humor and unexpected humanity. Nearby, a General Ivolgin injures himself while inspecting paratroopers, adding a military touch to the already crowded room. A quarrelsome married couple checks in after a car accident, their bickering echoing through the sterile halls, while a businessman who has suffered genital injuries and a dislocated jaw arrives on the run from unseen assassins, his presence quickly drawing a motley entourage of visitors.

Into this already volatile mix, a Sergeant Semyonov brings in a detainee who has swallowed a police medal, turning the ward into a strange cross between a police station and a makeshift clinic. An actor and two brothers, known as the Kroupiers, arrive with their own set of fractures, reinforcing the film’s sense of an unlikely carnival crashing into hospital routine. They are joined by two long-term residents: Poluyan, a drug addict with a twisted neck who scavenges for painkillers, and the enigmatic “Incurable Patient,” a nameless man in a wheelchair whose illness remains unnamed, yet who never tires of starting conversations with “Easy for you to say…”.

The ward’s visitors add a further layer of surreal color. Zoya, a secretary and lover of Savenko, brings a personal touch to the night, and her presence is felt as she moves through the group with wary charm. The ward is also graced by a spectacle of showmanship: an actor, and the famed Father Frost persona, keeps reappearing in various guises, each appearance more ridiculous than the last, as if the holiday itself has spilled into the hospital corridors. Beyond this, the ward is visited by a German-speaking Santa Claus, a drunken urology professor, and the mysterious Karl Ivanovich, whose wings and other surprises begin to blur the line between fantasy and medical reality.

Amid the revelry, the on-duty doctor, Evgeny Kachalov, grows increasingly uneasy about turning the ward into a holiday party. Yet General Ivolgin steps forward to take charge, orchestrating a makeshift celebration that includes inviting female patients from a nearby ward, digging up a Christmas tree, and balancing the party with a lavish spread of food and drink financed by the businessman. Poluyan takes on the task of inviting prestigious guests, transforming the night into a bizarre social event staged inside a hospital. The plan, however, spirals into chaos when the assassins targeting the businessman break into the ward, only to be thwarted when the door to the businessman’s room’s safe accidentally collapses onto them.

The would-be hitmen are admitted to the ward and instead receive an IV of vodka, a comic reversal that underscores the film’s satirical tone. As the party continues, the Incurable Patient tips over his wheelchair, breaking a finger, and the group agrees to perform a spine surgery on him—based on a satirical article from a science magazine—despite no real medical expertise and the heavy intoxication in the room. The operation turns out to be successful, and in a moment that blends whimsy with defiance, Zoya stitches “Happy New Year!” into the patient’s back.

The next morning, the hospital’s television feeds bring surprising news: the Incurable Patient has miraculously regained the ability to walk. Reports then reveal a broader, almost cosmic goodwill—the Queen of England and the Pope have sent their wishes for a Happy New Year to the ward’s residents. The mysterious Karl Ivanovich is finally unmasked as a guardian angel, his wings hidden under his shirt, and the film closes with everyone joining in a rousing, communal song that fuses gratitude, humor, and a stubborn human will to persevere.

Throughout, the story threads together moments of absurdity with small, intimate windows into the lives of the patients and their visitors, offering a humorous yet strangely tender meditation on chance, resilience, and the unpredictable hospitality of a hospital at the turn of a year.

• Uncle Frost Kuzmich

• Zoya

• Lev Solovejchik

• General Ivolgin Mikhalych

• Poluyan, Aleksandr Polovtsev

• Lyosha

• Hopelessly Sick

• Mavetsky

• first brother of the croupier

Easy for you to say…