Zerograd

Zerograd (Город Зеро), sometimes called Zero City or Zero Town, is a 1989 Russian mystery film directed by Karen Shakhnazarov. Moscow engineer Alexey Varakin visits a small town on a business trip, where his adventures begin. He meets a naked secretary at a local factory, a prosecutor who wants to commit a crime and other strange characters. The film was selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Plot
The setting of the movie is a nameless town in the Soviet Union, where Alexei Varakin (played by Leonid Filatov), a Soviet engineer, is on a business trip to discuss alterations to small part in a line of air conditioners. Upon arriving at the factory, Alexei encounters confusion as he tries to find the pass he had recently requested. Inside, the manager's secretary is working completely nude, but this seems to be of no concern to the staff. Moreover, the manager (played by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan) is unaware that the chief engineer passed away several months ago. During lunch at a strangely empty restaurant, Alexei is presented with a cake in the shape of his own head, which he politely declines. The cook who made the cake becomes upset and takes his own life.

After giving his statement to the authorities, Alexei wants to leave the town as soon as possible. But at the train station  he discovers that all tickets are sold out. Instead of taking him to the Perebrodino railway station as he had hoped, the taxi driver takes him to Perebrodovo, a remote place that has a local history museum. The museum's caretaker, (played by Yevgeny Yevstigneyev), shows Alexei an exhibition that showcases a blend of different cultures and time periods, from the Trojans and Romans to the esteemed Soviet leaders, complete with impressive artifacts.

Alexei stops overnight at the home of a local electrician, whose underage son Misha tells him that he would never leave the town. Misha surprises Alexei by providing his full name: his surname, first name, and patronymic, as well as the years of his birth and death and the names of his four daughters, who will arrange a monument to him at the local cemetery. Later that night, a local driver named Anna offers to take Alexei to the Perebrodino station where Moscow-bound trains stop. However a black police 'Volga' car intercepts them.

The local investigator (played by Alexei Zharkov) provides Alexei with solid evidence that the recently deceased cook Nikolayev, is actually Alexei's biological father and that Alexei's real name is Mahmud. The town's prosecutor (Vladimir Menshov), who secretly harbors a desire to commit a crime, discloses that the supposed suicide at the restaurant was actually a premeditated murder. Anna takes Alexei to the summer house of poet Vasily Chugunov (Oleg Basilashvili), where he learns that cook Nikolayev was once the first rock'n'roll dancer in their town, who danced at a youth event in 1957, and Nikolayev's foe later became the prosecutor that Alexei had spoken to earlier. Later that evening, Alexei attends the opening of the Nikolayev Rock'n'Roll Fans Club, where prominent members of the town are also present. Chugunov declares this event as another victory for democracy. However, the prosecutor, who had previously spoken to Alexei, attempts to shoot himself in front of everyone, yet his service gun misfires multiple times.

As the night grew dark, a group from the dance party, accompanied by Alexei, opt to take a walk to the renowned 1,000-year-old oak tree. Legend has it that this tree held immense significance in ancient times, granting immense power to those who had the courage to sever its branches and claim its strength, ultimately rising to positions of great authority. But now, the once-mighty tree is withering away. While the others gather the oak's branches as mementos of its former power, the prosecutor offers Alexei an opportunity to escape. He quickly sprints away, frantically searching for a path in the dimly lit forest. As the sun begins to rise, he stumbles upon a boat without oars on a riverbank, boards it, and pushes it off into the flow.

Cast

 * Leonid Filatov as Alexey Varakin
 * Oleg Basilashvili as writer Vasily Chugunov
 * Vladimir Menshov as prosecutor Nikolay Smorodinov
 * Armen Dzhigarkhanyan as factory director Pavel Palych
 * Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev as keeper of the local history museum
 * Aleksei Zharkov as police detective
 * Pyotr Scherbakov as head of the city party council
 * Elena Arzhanik as secretary
 * Tatiana Khvostikova as Anna
 * Yury Sherstnev as waiter Kurdyumov
 * Michael Solodovnik as Attila
 * Alexander Bespaly as hospitable host
 * Eugene Zernov as cook

Reception
Zero City has an approval rating of 83% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10.

Awards

 * Gold Hugo at 25th Chicago Film Festival for best international feature film in 1989
 * Silver prize at Valladolid International Film Festival in 1988
 * Karen Shakhnazarov won award by European Science Fiction Society as best author and screenwriter in Soviet Union at Eurocon, 1989 in San Marino.