Original subtitles

Who's my brave boy?

Here, hold my hands.

You're gonna wait here.

Mama's gonna be right back, okay?

I told Grandpapa to meet us here.

Be back soon.

Evgeny.

My little mouse.

I didn't think you'd come home.

I thought you'd die on the front.

Should I leave my little mouse all alone in the world?

I get by.

Where did they send you?

Novgorod?

To work in a factory?

Did you manage to keep your legs shut, bliad?

You know nothing about how my life is.

Must I beat the wantonness out of you?

I'm not afraid of you.

Get back on that train.

Go!

Still my little hothead.

If you snatch a kettle from the stove you get burned.

Can the mouse not even squeak?

No, come on, go ahead, do it!

Do it!

Stab me!

Come on, stab me!

I faced German bayonets.

Shall I now quake in front of my own wife?!

Why does it have to be like this?

Because you want it like this.

You love it.

You do, I know the games you like to play.

I know them.

And so I shall take my belt to you, yeah?

And I leave you panting like a dog.

Then you'll be the good wife again

and the fire will go out of your eyes.

Nothing changes, my little mouse.

Nothing changes?

You have a son, Ivan.

And you will never get to see him.

Well, look at this.

How many rubles did that hair cost?

Soft hands too.

Lubov, feel this chaynik's hands.

Like velvet, no?

I'm Anastasia.

Tell us in a week, chaynik.

Where do I?

No one cares.

Not that one, that's Prushka's.

Polina's.

Just tell me which one is mine.

None of them.

But where do I sleep?

Anywhere that isn't a bed.

Let me see your hands.

You can share my bunk.

Because I have soft hands?

Go on.

Tell her, Svetlana.

She doesn't need to know.

Svetlana knows you will only be here a week.

It's why we don't bother learning your name.

Women with soft hands never last.

On the first day of work

you will ache like never before in your life,

digging in frozen ground,

dragging heavy logs with your soft hands.

Second day, you will stumble

and on the third day

you will fall.

And they will pick you back up again.

And on the fourth day, they will grind your soft hands

under their steel boots.

You think you'll live to see the sun on the fifth day?

Sixth?

Svetlana will share her bunk with you

because she is furthest from the stove

and because she knows it is only for a week

and then there will be nothing left of you.

I'm not as weak as you think.

You have one week to live.

But here, one week can be like a lifetime

and one night can drag on for longer than that,

so it all works out.

What's wrong with her?

She's bleeding.

Can I look.

She doesn't want your help.

- But... - She doesn't...

- I might be able to... - Want your help.

You're pretty.

The mouse speaks.

It must be a holy day.

What did you squeak?

She's pretty.

Lubov, you should take a look at her.

I know Yuri will.

Let me through.

She won't thank you.

The rules are different here.

You can explain them to me later.

She has a fever.

Might be her appendix.

Do we have clean water?

Only champagne and French brandy.

There's a well.

It must be clean.

It's clean enough to have frogs in the summer.

There's always snow.

Bring some for her stomach.

Okay.

M'ne pù figu

Fetch some snow.

Or drag her out into it, cut out the bureaucracy.

Mouse.

How long have I been down here?

I don't know anymore.

It's so cold.

It's so cold.

I can't see you in the dark.

Come back!

I take it you are the boss here.

For now.

Looks like it.

What did you do?

I worked for a living.

No, I mean, to end up in here.

What the hell would you know?

- I... - Nobody cares.

Whatever you have done,

there is someone in here who has done worse.

Stolen bigger, killed more, killed their only...

What you've done is nothing.

All that matters is what you do now.

You stole an apple, didn't you?

Here.

Will she be all right?

Something is bruised or ruptured.

She's a friend?

She brings us extra rations.

No friends in the GULAG.

No.

No friends.

You are in isolation.

Even when you stand at roll call with all of us,

you are alone.

We are all alone here.

The snow will help with the swelling.

Have to wait and see what the damage is.

So we have a nursemaid in the bunkhouse.

I am Masha.

This is Lubov.

And you?

Prushka.

You can call her Mouse, everybody does.

She hates it but she does nothing to stop them.

Mouse.

Polina works in the kitchens today.

Another hour more.

When you meet her, don't look at her scar.

She doesn't like it.

Thank you.

Don't thank me.

I've just had enough fighting for one night.

What happened to her?

I never touched her.

She got kicked.

You see, that is why I never fight.

One day you are well, the next day like so.

From a kick.

Not worth it.

But your husband you fight with.

A long time ago, when I was a hothead like you.

You were never like me.

Always.

But one time, things go too far.

And what happens?

I was sentenced to eight years.

Eight years only.

I got ten.

It was an accident.

My husband was another like Masha.

Hothead.

One night, he came home late from work,

stopped off for vodka on the way,

and his food was cold.

In a fight between a husband and a wife,

something always breaks.

He threw the dinner I had made.

I took the kettle off the stove.

Burned my hand.

Here, I still have the scar.

But I threw it.

I threw it as hard as I could.

Plate breaks, skull okay.

Kettle okay, skull breaks.

Something always breaks.

That's the shape of the world.

Did you mean what you said?

A week?

Yes.

It's average.

The longer you survive, the longer you keep on surviving.

10 years?

Prushka?

Two women, since I've been here.

Two women have survived their full sentence.

I don't think they had 10 years though.

Svetlana could make it.

Prushka, no chance.

And you?

What makes you think I only got 10 years?

So you'll never leave.

I like it here.

I used to vacation on the shores of the Volga,

a little dacha, with a steam bath in the garden;

there was a dock for fishing

where we would...

I'm done talking.

Uh-uh.

Suka!

The well froze between buckets.

Tonight will be colder than usual.

Has anyone ever escaped?

They try about once a month.

Does anyone make it?

None of them come back.

The problem is food.

The guards only march the fence line when the train comes

to look good for the commissar.

The rest of the month, they don't bother.

Where would you go?

If they left the gate open, who would walk out?

To freeze in the snow or starve.

Can you walk a hundred miles with nothing to eat?

But some try anyway?

Sometimes they...

Svetlana!

They try.

Sometimes they try, anyway.

The problem is food.

And the snow.

And Polina works in the kitchen?

You're right, Svetlana,

this will be interesting.

Polina's late.

She will blunder in the dark,

looking for a bunk she's known for months

and wake us all up.

Will she bring food?

Not for you.

What have you done for Polina?

She doesn't know you exist.

Hope Lubov gets better and back up on her knees.

That's not why she asks.

She's thinking, this one,

thinking like a rabbit in a snare.

Sleep, krùshka.

A hundred miles in which direction?

South, to the river.

There are villages all along the Sylva.

It's only 87 miles.

But a long way to go on one beet.

Better to sleep.

Good night, Prushka.

Good night, Svetlana.

Good night, chaynik.

Enough, you're worse than the lice.

Goodnight, bliad.

Try not to die.

Why is Polina late?

What?

Why is Polina so late?

With her scar, no guard would look at her.

Maybe she got caught stealing food.

We would have heard the shot.

She's running tonight!

Polina!

You knew this?

No.

That figures.

The only person she tells is the person who never talks.

I didn't know!

That suka!

Is she at the fence yet?

I can't tell.

The guards in the tower, they never look straight down.

If you're quiet, you can go under it.

But they will see you before you get very far from the camp.

The guards in the kalanchá

saw them going over the fence line.

Dogs in the morning.

They got away.

If she gets past them...

She will have taken food for the journey.

There's still 87 miles of Siberia out there.

She left her blanket, so the cold...

I want her blanket.

I want a dacha with gold floors.

Do you think they made it?

The guns are quiet.

True.

Why are they quiet?

Quiet is good.

One way or another.

If she went alone...

Roll call tomorrow.

But none of us knew.

I'm sure they will take that into account.

Oh that suka!

She runs, we get punished!

If she went with others,

there's another bunkhouse involved, maybe two of them.

They can't punish all of us.

You know what I mean.

They have to worry about what it looks like.

But if she went alone it all falls on us?

If she went, she didn't go alone.

Then who was?

Who could she go with?

Who would be the avietchka?

She'd starve without one.

I heard there was a new girl

in the bunkhouse near the latrine.

Maybe if she was stupid.

She died.

Sure?

Dysentary.

Or TB.

It's not really the same.

One end or the other, something was coming out.

If not her then who?

Maybe it was her.

Maybe Polina is the avietchka.

I don't believe it.

What is an avietchka?

It's a baby sheep.

I know what it means.

Prushka?

I never told her.

It's not my place to tell.

She ran alone.

With her leg?

She limps.

Just a little.

She's not that stupid.

Tomorrow at the headcount

we will have to answer for her escape.

We need Yuri.

If he can help us.

Maybe he can say she was from another bunkhouse

and then we won't get beaten at all.

Someone else can take it.

Lubov!

She's sleeping.

Still?

It's a healing sleep.

The mind shuts down for the body's sake.

If we had vodka to...

Oh yes, I've got some vodka on ice

over here with the blinis.

Maybe we can send your servant into Moscow

to get us another bottle!

In a day or two we'll find out.

She doesn't have a day or two, we work tomorrow.

Is there a sick call or an infirmary?

Never mind the fields tomorrow,

we need her to work tonight!

She is sick!

You're the suka.

We need her.

This is my fault?

You kicked her.

You said not to touch her face,

I didn't touch her face!

You kicked her in the belly,

you think that's any better?

She walks around here like she just...

Oh, and you do?

Stop this, both of you.

She is our one chance to survive.

You call this survival?

She has done more than you ever could.

You think because you are quick with your fist,

because you have a temper like a wolf bitch,

that you mean anything here?!

Shut it, Svetlana.

You are nothing!

Lubov!

Nothing, bliad?!

Nothing, cow!

You wanna fight now?!

Can you feel this?

Nothing?!

I take it back.

I take it back.

Wake up, Lubov.

She can't.

It's a good thing you helped your friends.

They rely on you.

Alë,

Lubov!

Your boyfriend needs you!

He needs you to make him sweet like a sugar beet.

Make him so happy

that his whip hangs as limp as his khren.

Lubov!

Wake up, sleepyhead.

Good morning, krùshka.

Stop.

She can't.

She can't do that, she can barely walk.

Are you telling me what she can and cannot do?

Yes.

So you are volunteering.

What?

To go in her place.

You are pretty, you are new.

You're telling me the guards

didn't notice you when you came in?

Did you see the sergeant?

His name is Yuri.

He sits in the guard shack across the parade

when the others are off hunting Polina with the dogs

and you will go to him,

and you will tell him that Lubov

is unavailable this evening.

Like hell I will.

You will do it or they will beat you with a whip.

I'll take the whip.

They will also beat me with the whip

and Prushka and Svetlana, even Lubov!

They will drag her out of her bed and beat her

even if she's unable to feel it.

Why?

Because the rule of the guard must be absolute.

If they were to forgive even one blow,

who would respect them then?

If I am beaten, I will take it out on you, you know this.

You have no friends here!

You will go, chaynik!

No!

Anastasia?

It would be easier if you just give in now.

I will not.

Go!

No!

You think there are choices here?

There's always a choice.

Don't make this happen.

Don't make us do this.

You can't make me do this.

You can't make me do anything.

You can hurt me or you can kill me.

But that is all.

Fair enough.

Not her face!

Do you know why she tells me that, chaynik?

Because she knows this is no idle threat.

I'm not gonna wave this around, make you scared.

I'm gonna burn you.

I don't want to

but you will go to Yuri.

You are too new to understand that this is survival!

No, no.

Help me.

This will help you.

Just her feet. - Don't do it.

Yuri doesn't care about her feet.

Stop it!

I will go.

At least someone understands here.

You can't.

Who the hell are you?

I was a nurse.

You cannot go in your condition.

Being whipped and beat will be better for me?

He can be gentle.

It will not kill me but tomorrow might.

So I will go, help me up.

You are doing this to her.

You.

I don't...

I cannot do this.

I thought that too a long time ago.

The guards in the kalanchámissed.

She's out there.

Running through snow.

Limping through snow.

And this is how it is?

Always.

Where's this guard shack?

Yes?

- I'm... - The new girl.

You've come to complain about the accommodations?

Is your bed too soft?

Lubov cannot be here.

Lubov, yes, of course.

Little Lubov, she is what, indisposed?

There was a...

She had a...

Yes.

And you came here to tell me this?

Not sure what I can do for you but come in.

Close the door.

I've not heard the dogs come back yet.

Do you think Polina made it?

Why not?

She took food from the kitchens.

She's no avietchka.

You must be happy.

Me?

You shared your bunk for 10 minutes.

One leaves as another arrives.

We're back to five again.

And you will take the bunk near the stove.

Don't cook that chicken.

It still has feathers.

Who will stop her?

You are no longer the shishka here.

Oh, so you say.

You think Yuri will not give his scraps of meat

to the chaynik?

You know men better than that.

You lost a lot more than blood tonight.

I am unclear,

at what point do you get my bunk?

What do you mean?

You are not taking my place.

She is.

She will take my bunk and grant you scraps

to keep your fists at your side.

I would offer you some but

it is forbidden to have such things in camp.

To share with a prisoner.

Such a thing in itself would be a crime.

Sit down, please.

Now you may ask, where is the harm?

Come in here where it is warm,

have a little vodka.

And a crime with no harm,

is it really a crime?

But if I was to sit down with you here,

soon I might become tempted.

She's weak.

She's soft.

And Yuri will keep her that way.

He can have soft hands on his khren.

What will you do?

Kick her belly until she curls up on a bunk,

useless like Lubov?

Thanks.

Nothing changes here.

I'll kill her.

You can't.

Who'll stop me, you?!

We would.

We need her.

We don't have to stop you.

You need her too.

Lubov will recover.

If there's another bringing in extra food,

I will take the cold bunk and be happy.

Yuri is a pig.

You will have nothing.

You think she'd share with you?

Without Yuri, you are the weakest here.

How long will she last?

She'll do what she has to to survive.

No, no she won't.

She'll let him kill her first.

She went tonight.

Not because we beat her.

She wouldn't give in, she's more than all of us together.

Then why didn't you hit her harder?

- It wasn't us. - Whose side are you on?!

It wasn't us.

She went for Lubov.

She went because she had no choice.

She's stronger than you, Masha.

When she comes back, she'll have it all.

I can break her.

They won't let you.

They can't stop me!

Even both of them.

And you would be with me.

We could destroy her easily.

She's a bigger threat to you.

So we agree.

There is no bed for her here.

You think we'll just step back?

Name your price.

More food.

We get some meat.

Masha said it.

It's her or me.

Am I then so dangerous?

The danger is that you might tempt me to

see you not as a prisoner but as what?

That was not a rhetorical question.

Are you so timid you can't speak?

I don't know what to say.

So, silence.

Good.

If you had drunk the vodka, you'd be dead now.

Masha.

Svetlana.

You can't let her do this.

I'm not involved.

You know she's out there.

You know what she's doing for this bliad

who would spread her legs for 10 kopeks in a Mi...

You survive because of me!

Do you close your eyes and leave your body

as you eat what I provide or do you taste it?

Are you so precious

and so untouched by the filth I walk in?

You can't let her do this.

It is the shape of the world.

I want to eat some real food.

Meat.

And for that you would let a woman die?

Something always breaks.

Which one?

Lubov?

Anastasia?

It doesn't make a difference anymore.

It's nice to be appreciated.

But why?

Why does it have to be either of them?

Look, there is a bunk right here.

It's empty.

Anastasia can just sleep here.

There doesn't have to be blood tonight.

You don't even care if it's Lubov or Anastasia

who brings you food, let them both.

Let Yuri decide.

Maybe they can.

Lubov.

Just talk to her.

She's kind and she has soft hands.

There doesn't have to be blood...

She's kind.

She's soft.

In a week, she'll be hard like Masha.

She will be cold and careless like Svetlana.

She will be ripped apart inside like...

I will take her now

while she's kind, while she is soft.

When she walks in from the cold.

From Yuri.

From her first time with a man she despises

because her eyes will only look at the floor.

She will see nothing.

It will be quick and that will be kind.

I won't let you.

Prushka, be careful.

I mean it.

How will you stop me?

I will cut you, Prushka.

You're weak.

You're still bleeding, you can hardly stand.

You know, for someone who

wanted everyone to sit and talk like old friends,

you seem determined to see two dead women tonight,

are you sure you want to join Anastasia?

Don't kill her, Lubov.

Just cut her a little.

I will fight you.

Ah.

I guess with Polina gone, we need another scarred face!

So, you understand the danger here?

Not to you, your life has no meaning.

It's a fact.

The danger here is that

I must maintain my role,

my responsibility

to my men, to the integrity of this institution,

and you threaten that by your mere presence.

I am rather fond of Lubov.

I like her.

Much like a man likes a dog

but if even for one moment I was to think of her as

a person,

life here would become unbearable.

And you,

you sit here,

your skin still pink and healthy.

You are a person

still.

And that is unacceptable.

So,

some music.

Hope you enjoy that warm bunk while you can.

Might even get a whole night in it.

You think you will be better by tomorrow?

Tomorrow you'll be in the fields with us.

Or scrubbing tubs in the laundry,

holding your belly

while the blood spills down your legs.

Without Yuri...

You better sleep with one eye open.

I do not need you alive anymore.

Masha.

Put it down.

While Anastasia lives, you do not exist.

You are nothing but a wounded belly and bad memories.

So give me the knife.

I already have the warm bunk.

Only for now.

You give me the knife, you can keep it.

This is our trade?

- What about... - Your made your deal.

We step back, she brings us real meat.

For me to do my job, I must ceaselessly guard against

sympathy, rapport, all of those conditions that are human,

that make us human.

That's how I survive.

Do you even understand?

To remain human myself, for my very survival,

I must act inhumanly.

Man's inhumanity to man is

nothing compared to man's inhumanity to woman.

So,

you come to me in Lubov's place.

For what?

To engage in congress?

This will be an experience from which you will not recover.

By design,

by careful considered design of a man,

who, himself, is merely trying to survive in a dark place.

Shall we begin?

There is another choice.

She won't even wake up.

She did nothing but help you.

She tried to usurp me.

It's only survival.

You say one word, I will come for you in the night,

do you understand?

Yes.

You will be quiet?

Like a mouse.

Are you going to sleep?

There's no shame in this place.

The walls, the guards, the dogs.

It's only survival.

You do what you have to.

You do what you have to.

Lubov.

What?

Tell Anastasia.

You know these things, speak words of comfort.

Tell her.

I have no words for her.

That's because she too must find a way to survive.

That is why all of us are here.

But if she could talk

she would tell you...

What?

That the skin can grow so tough nothing penetrates.

Not the groping of men's hands.

Not the cutting of their whips.

Or that

there is a place

where men can not touch you.

A place where you can remain inviolate,

so deep inside,

behind fences

dogs and guards.

Behind a thousand kalanchás.

Across the 87 miles of frozen wasteland.

And there you can stay for years.

Are these the words she's looking for?

What would she tell you,

if she could cry out from inside such a deep place?

I'm sorry!

Is that?

Back away!

You took his gun!

You stupid woman, you took Yuri's gun!

He wasn't using it.

What have you done?

Yuri is dead.

- No, no, no. - He is dead.

They will shoot us.

They will shoot us in the head!

We won't be here.

You're crazy.

Where are the dogs?

Following Polina's trail far from the camp.

Most of the guards are with them.

I will run.

Past the kalanchá?

Under it, quietly like you told me.

South to the river, the Sylva.

87 miles.

You'll never make it.

The best time to escape

is as soon as you are captured.

You'll freeze in the snow.

I'll take blankets

and I'll take Prushka.

What?

One persona may freeze, two together, not so much.

Three, never.

We could survive the snow.

We escape together tonight.

Svetlana, can you run?

I can run.

Then we run, all of us.

Polina has thrown off the dogs.

We have a moment

while the guards' eyes are turned elsewhere.

We can run if we run together.

You killed a guard.

I killed a pig.

Lubov, Yuri lies with his brains steaming on the floor.

Will you run with us?

How far will she get?

She can't walk!

I will get far enough!

You will die in the snow.

And you will die on your knees

with a bullet in the back of your skull.

They find Yuri's body, they come straight to us.

To us?

She's one of us?

She did this, her!

I know.

She makes the decision for us.

She's the only one who had the choice to make.

We are prisoners.

You will go in the snow?

We are going!

And who is the avietchka?

Is it you, Prushka?

Svetlana?

Lubov?

You do not know.

She said Prushka first, before any other.

She said Prushka.

But I know, I'm no stupid chaynik, I know.

Lubov will fall, she's sick.

If you do not know who the avietchka is, it is you.

You think I only asked Prushka as a lamb?

I thought you didn't know what that word meant.

Avietchka.

A little lamb, the sacrifice.

Is it not obvious?

The one who escapes only to make it halfway?

The chaynik who is told of a great opportunity and takes it

only to discover the others

had their plans for her all along.

The question is food.

And the answer is what the answer always is,

we are animals and that in the end we turn on each other.

Throw Lubov to the men in the guard shack

like a scrap of meat to the wolves, why not?

It's for survival.

Fight,

kill each other

over the warmth of a stove.

Of course it's for survival.

I refuse to survive.

But I will live.

Survival is all there is here.

You want to live, go.

Live in the cold, in the snow.

Live for one night and freeze to death.

I will survive her where I belong.

What did you do, Masha?

Why are you the only one in this place

who deserves to be here?

You do not know?

You can not remember what happened?

It is not for me to remember, it is you, Masha.

You tell us why you are here.

I told you.

I loved my husband even when he hit me.

I told you all my secrets.

Tell us.

You sent me to Yuri like a pimp.

You ate the food that I earned

even when it tasted of his sweat.

Tell me.

Tell us, maybe then you can come with us

and we leave nothing behind.

I stole an apple.

Tell us.

Think of it as a matter of survival.

Tell us.

We are murderers, you and I.

Don't you remember?

No, there was only one, there was...

Only one.

You don't.

Who?

My son!

My beautiful boy!

He was five years old

with hair...

like straw.

His hair floating around his beautiful face.

He floated away

and I never saw him.

How can you not remember this?

I killed my husband.

I know.

And for that I go free.

For what I did, I stay here.

Anastasia?

Which one is the lamb?

In the cold, with no food and miles to go.

Who will you sacrifice for the others?

None of them.

You can not all survive.

I will not sacrifice any of them.

Then yourself?

No.

I am no lamb.

Who's there?

Lubov?

Svetlana?

Svetlana?

Is that you, Prushka?

Did you come all this way with me?

I can not see you in the dark?

Why don't you speak?

Evgeny?

No.

No, I killed you, you can't be him.

But you have his eyes.

How long have I been running in the snow?

Has it been 87 miles yet?

You don't know me?

How could I not know my own son?

Ivan.

Let me look at you.

You've grown.

You...

No, you...

You can not be Ivan.

He was only a child.

I was five years old when you killed Papa.

Five years old

with hair like,

like straw.

I had to shield you from him.

From becoming what he was.

That was your choice to make.

They sent me to Leningrad

to live with grandpapa.

I spent 12 years on his boat.

I'm a fisherman now.

12 years?

No.

I ran the first night.

I fought a guard, you would've been proud.

I defended my honor.

We ran the first night while my hands were soft.

Your hands are not soft.

No.

And they have blood on them.

What have they done to my hands?

You served 12 years.

No one survives 12 years.

You survived, you were in isolation.

Here a week can be a lifetime

and the night can drag on for longer than that.

You are in isolation.

That is why all of us are here.

She must find a way to survive.

She's more than all of us together.

She will be hard like Masha.

She will be cold and careless like Svetlana.

She will be ripped apart inside like...

It's for survival.

Everything is.

There are places men can not touch.

Places so deep inside that there you can stay for years.

What would you say

if you could cry out from inside such a deep place.

I am sorry.

You said you would come back.

I never lost you.

Masha held you in her heart

when I was too scared, too broken.

She was the one who could.

His hair floating in front of me.

So I never lost you.

I dreamt of you every night.

You never forgot me?

I'm your mother.

For what I've done, I go free.