The Blonde Around the Corner

The Blonde Around the Corner is a 1984 Soviet romantic comedy directed by Vladimir Bortko. It tells the story of an astrophysicist who begins to work at a grocery store where he falls in love with a saleswoman. The film became Bortko's breakthrough. Plot Former astrophysicist Nikolai Gavrilovich (Andrey Mironov) who spent fifteen years in a fruitless search for extraterrestrial life, neither aspiring or succeeding to acquire material wealth in life, by fate gets the post of a porter at a local self-service supermarket, where he falls in love with Nadezhda (Tatyana Dogileva), a cute blonde salesgirl of the gastronomic department, whom as it turned out, he saw every morning at the bus stop. She is also fond of him. It is immediately obvious that the businesslike and living below her means Nadezhda is the antithesis of Nikolai — she is practical, penetrating, knows all the "right people" (and she herself is such — due to her access to coveted food products). But at the same time she is a hopeless romantic and listens to Nikolai's stories about his scientific quests. Charming Nadezhda as a salesperson is a genuine authority on the "real" life, to which she seeks to involve Nikolai, and sincerely does not understand his stubborn opposition towards her efforts. But she has decided everything and has all planned out. However, unable to cope with his new status and in such an atmosphere, Nikolai runs away from his own wedding. After receiving a positive confirmation concerning his line of research, he returns to his old job and is leaving for a research trip to the Far North ... Nadezhda promises to get a radio telescope which is required for her beau's work, but is very difficult to obtain, and goes along with him.