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AN IVI SERIES

ANDREASYAN BROTHERS FILM COMPANY

LIZA MORYAK

ANNA GLAUBE

OLGA SMIRNOVA

CASTING DIRECTOR SVETLANA YERSHOVA

PRODUCTION DESIGNER OLGA TSYBA

COMPOSERS ARTEM KAZAKU, MARK DORBSKIY

EDITING DIRECTOR GEORGIY ISAAKYAN

CREATOR ELENA NOSIKOVA

SCREENWRITERS ELENA NOSIKOVA, YERZIA YERTLES

CINEMATOGRAPHER ANATOLIY SIMCHENKO

IVI CREATIVE PRODUCERS RENAT SHAYAKHMETOV, MARGARITA FILCHINA

IVI EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GALINA LAZAREVA

IVI LINE PRODUCER IRINA DZHGANDZHGAVA

CREATIVE PRODUCERS GAIK ASATRYAN, ANDREY GAVRILOV, GOGA MAMADZHANYAN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ILYA SHUVALOV

PRODUCERS SARIK ANDREASYAN, GEVOND ANDREASYAN

DIRECTOR SARIK ANDREASYAN

ART OF SEDUCTION EPISODE 3

Every second, millions of people around the world are having sex.

Sex.

Sex.

Sex.

For reproduction, for pleasure, or by mistake…

Like saying "I do" at city hall.

We could easily read the unconscious minds of others.

But we couldn’t deal with our own subconscious.

There’s a pseudo-scientific theory:

everything in our reality—

is simply the result of our subconscious desires.

You’re awake?

Don’t stand there! Go wake Anya!

But he’s a traitor!

Sweetie, mom was just upset!

You said you’d never forgive dad!

Daddy, daddy!

You’ll know when you grow up!

Want your porridge lumpy or smooth?

Hello! Hey, sis!

Anya, hey!

Why didn’t you pick up? How are you?

Sorry, sis. Exams. Total chaos.

ANNA

Listen, I called about something.

Can you send me more money?

Your studies cost more than the high life in Moscow.

I send you a ton of money. Where does it all go?

I wanted to take extra lessons. It’s fine if you can’t.

And how’s dad?

DAD

I’ll send you everything. Please be careful.

Yeah, sure. Love you, sis!

Smooches!

Guys, let’s go!

This is unbearable! It’s absolutely disgusting!

Do you really think Camus meant this?

I told you my point and see no reason to argue!

But your arguments lack facts! They’re just theses!

Which you failed to disprove!

See, dear? Always choose a man smarter than you!

Dear, your mother was never the smart one!

She’s just fooling herself! You won’t be smarter either!

No one will ever be smarter than me!

It’s disgusting!

Alright, boys! Hurry up, we’re running late!

Hey, why the sad face?

Mom, I don’t want to go.

Why, Vanya?

Because my name is Vanya, and everyone makes fun of me.

Sweetie, who’s making fun of you?

Everyone.

Liar!

Fibber!

I’m not lying! He really is an astronaut!

He’s been on a secret mission for six years!

My mom said he left you!

And your mom had you with some random guy!

ABSOLUTELY RANDOM GUY

It’s foolish to laugh

just because something doesn’t fit your idea of how things should be.

Whaaa? It’s his name?

Not "whaa," but "what"!

Ivan is a beautiful Russian name!

But he’s not Russian!

Young man, do you consider yourself very foolish?

Why?

Only a fool named Anton

would laugh at the name Ivan.

-Why? -Anton the moron!

Children reflect everything that happens at home.

Are you mistreated at home?

No! We won’t do it again!

How do you know his name and his parents’?

It’s written on his vest.

If his parents cared about his opinion,

they wouldn’t have embroidered his name in bright pink for everyone to see.

Alright, run along! Have a great day!

Vanya, your apple!

Eve was cast out of paradise

for tasting the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

Our paradise ends when we learn the harsh truth about ourselves.

In our marriage, there were always conditions placed on me.

ELENA

For example, if I couldn’t finish a quote from Zarathustra,

He lost interest in me.

Go on. You’re not judged here.

You see, I’m exhausted from reading, writing…

I feel sick.

I pass out from exhaustion,

and I vomit.

But I kept writing his dissertation.

ACADEMIC DISSERTATION

He got hired as a professor,

and now I check all his students’ work and write his articles…

At the same time, I do the laundry, cleaning, cooking…

And he stopped sleeping with me.

Matilda Effect?

Exactly.

The Matilda Effect—systematic erasure of women’s contributions to science.

Before, there were physical pleasures, at least.

Now, even that’s gone.

Divorce?

I made him a scientific luminary.

If I bring up divorce,

he’ll cut off all my opportunities in academia.

He can do that?

Of course.

The dissertation I wrote for him made him a very powerful man.

When you have kids, you’ll understand how hard it is to find a nanny.

Well, now your kids feel like mine!

Because I trust you. I don’t trust other women.

Milena, I’m a researcher, not a nanny.

Get comfy! I’m already late for my shoot!

Why do you need a job? You make great money!

-I could ask you the same thing! -This is science!

And this is filming!

If Dmitry shuts down our agency,

we’ll both need jobs.

-Agreed. -There you go!

Help them with homework, please! And no sweets!

Give me any particular quirks in his personality.

He’s a man of principle.

A man of principle

who shamelessly exploits his wife’s intellectual labor?

To him, a woman is an essence.

You understand?

A moral compass, an ideal, perfection.

He’s impotent?

No, he’s a professor.

Professors come in three types.

The first—untouchable old men.

The offended virtue and the disgraced innocence.

The second—freshly minted PhD candidates.

A dry, stiff man who views your body

strictly from an anatomical perspective.

The third, the final type—The Hierophant.

A monk-hermit. Devoted to higher ideals.

In his life, there’s no place for anything carnal like sex.

But we all know, there’s no place where sex doesn’t belong.

You guys thirsty? -Yeah!

Aunt Sophia, can we have something good to drink?

-Coffee? -Milk!

No! Drink what you get!

We have freedom of choice!

Who told you that?

You did!

-Are we expecting someone? -No.

There are false beliefs, like: men want sex more than women.

Or that women are more emotional than men.

In a borderline situation…

between life and death, a transition is possible!

Excuse me, I’m new here.

Transferred from St. Petersburg! May I sit?

Yes, please.

ROMAN

A transition between essence and existence is possible!

May I ask a question?

Yes, sure!

What’s the point of essence if there’s no existence?

Quite the opposite!

There’s no point in existence without essence.

When a woman is with a man, that’s…

That’s her existence.

Fulfilling basic physical needs.

What if her primary need is a man?

You’re talking about physiology.

We’re discussing the greatest teachings of the 20th century, game changing.

Has anything really changed since then?

What if I give you an example that disproves your words?

Will you end the lecture and take a break right now?

Try me!

Alexander Blok.

He refused to sleep with his wife on principle.

And he stopped sleeping with me.

Out of principle, he chased after other women,

while his wife had to take lovers.

She even had a child with another man.

How does this contradict existentialism?

To him, they were just essences.

To him, a woman is an essence.

But in reality, they existed like animals.

My principle is keeping my word.

He's a man of principle.

Lecture’s over. See you after the long break.

-You? -Me.

Witch.

Some kind of illusion.

Milena! Is Milena here?

People are planning to colonize Mars and trading crypto,

and you believe in some nonsense?

-Well, where is Milena? -Mom's at work.

-And she's not a witch, but feminist. -And my aunt.

I'm a friend of Milena’s. She asked me to watch the kids.

That’s me sorted. What do you want?

Last time, I figured Milena needed help with the boys.

So I brought some farm goods.

Here’s some bread…

And…

-Have you eaten today? -Nothing.

Aunt Sophia said she'd order pizza.

We're drinking soda.

That won’t do!

-You… -Silence, woman!

A man is about to cook borscht!

-Right, guys? -Yeah! Silence, woman!

The men are cooking borscht now!

Breaking a monk's principles needs strategy.

First, become a priestess— a Hierophant in female form.

Text, subtext, and intertext…

Have you lost your mind?

Doesn’t this fit your theory?

Am I not just an essense?

Please, continue the lecture. Intertext is fascinating.

You live in a world of higher ideals, where there’s no place for sex.

Then, you prove the opposite.

Excuse me!

Sophia, how are they?

Doing great.

Why is it so quiet over there?

They’re cooking borscht.

Who? The kids?

-Stepan and the kids. -What?

STEPAN

He was my best friend as a child.

Sophia, let’s eat!

A monk’s principles—

a structure easily shattered by the sledgehammer of real-life problems.

What’s more grounding than everyday crises?

Professors exist in their vacuums and theories.

But the moment they encounter unsolvable real-life problems…

or even the simplest daily tasks— it's over.

They become helpless.

And that’s exactly when you…

Give them everything they desperately need.

Sorry for the incident.

Maybe you need a hand?

No, I don’t.

Shame. I know a good plumber.

Actually… yes.

But it’s crucial to make him realize he truly needed your help.

Serious breakdown. Barely managed.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Here. Thank you.

Thanks, Uncle Stepan!

-Thank you! -Thanks!

-Did you like it? -Yeah!

A cop?

Yeah, what about it?

I wanted to be a cop as a kid.

Then I changed my mind when they renamed the force.

Are you an idiot?

You Moscow women are weird. Feeding kids soda and…

-Pizza, right? -Yeah!

Feeding them junk!

You’re already 30. Think it through.

Alright, enough!

Thanks for the help! Appreciate it!

How much do I owe you?

Silly.

The borscht was actually really good.

Anfisa, thank you so much!

I have a gift for you. A compensation for the lecture.

No, please, no gifts!

You’ve already helped me.

Give a man what he wants, then take everything from him.

Make him indebted.

Indeed!

Sallust, Suetonius, and Plutarch.

This is very expensive. I can’t accept it. I’m sorry.

Sallust is brilliant. Take it.

You read Sallust? Which translation?

The original.

Why are you lying to me?

Only five people in Moscow can read Sallust in the original.

And they’re leading scholars, not…

-Matilda Effect? -Exactly.

Systematic erasure of women’s contributions to science.

Put three pages in front of me— Sallust, Suetonius, and Plutarch.

And I’ll tell you which is which.

That’s impossible.

What if I get it right?

I’ll show you the draft of my new book.

No, you’ll grant me any wish I ask.

MATILDA EFFECT

This is Sallust,

this is Suetonius, and that’s Plutarch.

Could you tell Horace, Catullus, and Virgil apart?

First, my wish!

What would that be?

An A on my final exam?

My wish has nothing to do with academic achievements,

but something entirely different…

For the first time, I want

to merge as one—mind, body, and soul—

with someone equally enlightened.

Please,

could you read me some Sallust?

To all those who strive to be different…

Please, continue.

…should strive in every way not to live a life of obscurity,

like cattle,

created by nature to be bent to the earth

and enslaved by its stomach.

Yes, yes, keep going! This is wildly exciting!

All our strength lies in spirit and body:

the spirit is mostly the master, the body—the slave,

the first we share with the gods, the second with animals.

Yes, keep going!

Because the fame granted by wealth and beauty

is fleeting and fragile!

Oh yes! Sallust! This is wildly exciting!

But valor is a possession brilliant and eternal.

And give me an extra point! It was my idea!

You really got him!

But how?

There are special lenses here.

With light reflection, the paper will look different.

The darker one is Sallust…

That’s Sallust…

The lighter one—Suetonius…

That’s Suetonius…

The one yellowish—that’s Plutarch.

And this is Plutarch…

Who were the kids with?

-With Stepan. -What?

Not for long.

THANKS, SIS!

How’s his wife?

Now his ex.

Since when do you care about clients’ fates?

Professional solidarity.

Ah, another victim of the Matilda Effect.

She’s doing fine.

More than fine.

She found an ordinary guy, no education,

who can’t even tell Monet from Manet.

A plumber?

A taxi driver.

I could go for shawarma right now.

You remind me of that Stepan.

Silly.

We village folks keep it simple.

Unlike you city people eating foie gras, oysters and drinking champagne.

Alright, ladies, let’s toast to Anfisa.

To your honesty and sharp intuition!

PAY TIME. TOMORROW!