Promised Heaven 1991

Set against the dusk of the Soviet Union, the film follows a small, stubborn community living on a landfill near a Moscow train station. Once prosperous, these people have lost their jobs, their homes, and the people they loved, and they now survive among the scraps and memories of a fast-changing world. At the heart of the group is Liya Akhedzhakova as Fima, a gifted artist whose creative spark endures despite hunger and hardship; her brother Fyodor Yelistratov, a survivor of Stalinist repression; Solomon, a former engineer whose family emigrated to Israel, Roman Kartsev; and Katya, a former cook and housemaid who was beaten and kicked out by her alcoholic son and now lives with amnesia, Olga Volkova.

Leading them is the self-styled “President,” Dmitry Loginov, a former party worker who, like Fyodor, spent time in Stalin’s camps. The role is portrayed by Valentin Gaft, a man who clings to a dream that something better may be waiting beyond the landfill. The President’s ex-wife also appears in the story, played by Svetlana Nemolyaeva, a figure whose past shadows the present struggle.

One night, the President reveals astonishing news: he claims to have had contact with aliens who promise to take all the homeless to a planet where happiness, joy, and peace rule. The community prepares for a long journey, awaiting a signal from the visitors—a sign that will come when blue snow falls from the sky. Yet the outside world is not idle. The authorities plan to liquidate the landfill to make way for a condom factory backed by American investors, and they are prepared to do whatever it takes to erase the campers and reclaim the land.

As the winter night arrives and the blue snow begins to fall, the President and his companions go out to greet the supposed visitors, only to confront a stark reality: heavily armed police squads and T-55 tanks that loom to raze their shantytown. In a final act of defiant hope, the desperate residents load the old steam locomotive, power it to life, and as it gathers speed, it lifts off from the ground, heading toward the so-called Promised Heavens.