Mother

Plot

This story began a long time ago. Having lost her husband, who was imprisoned for stealing coal and was killed during the escape, Polina, the mother of six children, was left without any support. To make ends meet, Polina founded a family folk music ensemble. Soon, however, she realizes that her children were worthy of a better fate, and she makes a desperate decision to escape the Soviet Union by hijacking the commercial airliner the family was traveling aboard.

Fifteen years later, Polina is released from prison to learn that fate has scattered her children all over the country: one is illegally fighting in a bar, another is chopping coal in the Donbas. Her oldest, Leonid, is still in a psychiatric hospital, having pretended to be mentally ill for 15 years to avoid prosecution for the hijacking.

In the final scenes, Polina again gathers her sons to free their elder brother from the hospital.

Cast

Nonna Mordyukova as Polina

Yelena Panova as young Polina

Oleg Menshikov as Leonid

Vladimir Mashkov as Nikolay

Yevgeny Mironov as Pavel

Aleksei Kravchenko as Vasily

Mikhail Krylov as Yuri

Maksim Sukhanov as special hospital's head

Nikolai Chindyajkin as head physician

Andrei Panin as father

Pavel Lebeshev as icebreaker's captain

Roman Madyanov as sergeant

Bolot Beyshenaliyev as old northerner

Natalia Soldatova as Stewardess

Awards and nominations

Winner

Honfleur Festival of Russian Cinema — Audience Award (Denis Yevstigneyev)

Kinotavr — Best Music (Eduard Artemyev)

Nominee

Nika Award — Best Music (Eduard Artemyev)

Russian Guild of Film Critics — Best Actress (Nonna Mordyukova)

Kinotavr — Full-Length Film

Tokyo International Film Festival — Tokyo Grand Prix