Promised Heaven

Promised Heaven (Небеса обетованные) is a 1991 Soviet film directed by Eldar Ryazanov. The film is a fantastical social tragicomedy.

Plot
The movie is set in against the dusk of the Soviet Union and associated changes in economical and social life. Near one of Moscow's train stations, on a landfill site, a group of vagrants lives. Due to a variety of reasons, once prosperous people have lost their jobs, homes, loved ones and began living at a landfill. Among them are: Anthemia, a talented artist; her brother Fedor Yelistratov, who was repressed in the days of Stalinism; Solomon, a former engineer, who lost his job because his family emigrated to Israel; and former cook and housemaid Katya, who was beaten and kicked out of her house by her drunkard son. The head of those unfortunate people is "President" - a former party worker Dmitry Loginov, who like his friend Fedor, was in Stalin's camps.

One night the President tells his friends incredible news. He allegedly had contact with aliens, who promised to take all those people to their planet - to the place where happiness, joy and peace rule. At the right day and hour of the homeless are supposed to receive the signal from the "visitors from the sky": blue snow shall fall.

They prepare for a long trip, but authorities are going to liquidate the landfill site to build a condom factory. The President and other inhabitants of the landfill are trying to protect their home, but the authorities in their pursuit to liquidate the camp of homeless people are ready to do anything.

At a winter night, "blue" snow begins to fall from the sky. The President and his "fellow citizens" go out to meet the good aliens, but they see heavily armed police squads and tanks approaching them that should raze vagrants' shacks to the ground.

Desperate people load on the old steam train, power it up and as it gains speed, it takes off the ground, to the Promised Heavens.

Cast

 * Liya Akhedzhakova as Anthemia Stepanovna (Phima), woman artist
 * Olga Volkova as  Katya Ivanova, former cook and housemaid
 * Valentin Gaft as  Dmitry Loginov, former party worker, leader of tramps (President)
 * Leonid Bronevoy as  Semyon Yefremovich Bakurin, Soviet Army colonel retired
 * Oleg Basilashvili as  Fedor Stepanovich Yelistratov, Phima's brother
 * Svetlana Nemolyaeva as   Aglaya Sviderskaya, former party worker, Loginov's former wife
 * Sergei Artsibashev as   Kirill, Katya Ivanova's eldest son / Kirill Grigorievich, large party official
 * Mikhail Filippov as   Vasya, Katya Ivanova's younger son / Vasily Ilyich Prokhorov, large party official
 * Natalya Gundareva as   Lyuska, Vasya's cohabitant
 * Natalia Shchukina as   Jeannа, student, Fedor Yelistratov's wife
 * Vyacheslav Nevinny as   Stepan, bum
 * Roman Kartsev as   Solomon, bum, Stepan's friend
 * Alexander Pashutin as   crazy motorman
 * Nina Ruslanova as   Jeanne's aunt, dressmaker from Tver
 * Alexander Belyavsky as   Oleg P Mirov, chairman of Regional Executive Committee
 * Valery Nosik as   bum
 * Stanislav Sadalskiy as   photographer at the wedding
 * Lyudmila Ivanova as   Claudia, cat lady
 * Tatyana Kravchenko as   matron of the old people's home
 * Eldar Ryazanov as   client in a cafe

Awards

 * Awards of magazine "Soviet Screen": "Best film of the year" and "Best actress of the year" (1991)
 * Nika Award: "Best Movie", "Best Director", "Best Actor in a Supporting Role", "Best Music", "Best Sound", "Best Artistic Direction" (1992)
 * Film Critics Award of the film festival "Constellation" (1992)
 * Awards of International Film Festival in Madrid: Grand Prix - "Best fiction film" (1992)