Original subtitles

EGG LADY

There's not enough...

The figures show how popular The June 17 bakery cakes are.

350 tons of cakes are made per year.

The delicious caramel cake has merited state praise.

Selling of the assortment is no problem.

As soon as the cakes are delivered at the shop

even queues do not upset anyone.

The dinner will be sweet tonight!

The head of the egg department said:

Aina, dear, come and work for us! We need some people.

I went and tried it out.

I liked it, so I stayed.

It came easy to me.

Some people have to struggle to separate the yolks from the whites.

It came easy for me somehow. I had a feeling for the eggs.

It went quickly for me. I got used to it and liked it.

And the time passes quickly, too.

I guess it's my fate that I have become an egg breaker.

I had other jobs at the cake department before.

But now it's been 26 years with the eggs.

In the beginning there were many of us.

We had a hard time with the metal egg crates.

Good God! We were on changing shifts.

Some pried open the crates, others just busted eggs.

Still others jiggled �em around in the water.

Nothing has changed in my work.

Well, maybe the metal pots were changed. I think it was just once...

Maybe the egg cans got changed.

A couple of times, I think... But things are as they were.

We got a new door as well. The old one was always askance.

When new workers show up they can't keep up with me.

They say somebody ought to be trained.

But they work one day and say, �Go to hell.

This labour camp isn't for me!�

It's all repeating itself. The same restaurant, the same guests.

I have to be there tomorrow night to prevent the next murder.

1 grew up in this neighbourhood. And muddled around here ever since.

I went to School No. 15 here.

The people's deputies gather Called to their meeting

To do, start and initiate tasks!

What we have fought for, brothers, We shall never give to others

Lenin is with us, Stalin is with us! Our nation is invincible!

I was very good at school I never got any Cs.

And I finished the secondary school.

But then I got boy crazy and didn't think about school anymore.

Then it was just dances and dating.

I started smoking and other crazy stuff...

Should I brush it back? - A little to this side.

And then make it upwards with the fan.

So that it went into that direction...

Up there and like that... - Yeah.

You'll see for yourself.

All the geezers standing around and being very selective.

Just looking for the 18 year olds.

They won't even come near me.

And if someone does come over he probably thinks I'm rich or something.

And he will be somebody younger. That's for sure.

It'll be all right.

We'll go to the dance I'll surely find someone there.

We'll take a snort and the geezer will show up!

It's ladies' choice...

I used to go to all sorts of dances: at the Spinsters' Club, Riga Guild House,

at the club for the cement workers, nurses and tram drivers,

the club of construction workers and the electronics plant...

Jesus!

My mamma fed us but we just did the town.

Hit all the dances and had no time for nothing else.

I had no time for studies.

I used to go to places

where singers and actors were singing who are famous today.

Name them all...

I was even kissing with one of them.

Nobody would believe it if I told it to someone today.

I had someone to dance with in every club.

It happened at the Prostheses factory.

I went to a party with my date

and ended up with someone else.

I was ready to marry the first guy.

He had a very good job.

He was the planning director for the Riga area restaurant business.

I went to all the bars with him.

Never had to pay anything.

We had a table by the orchestra everywhere.

I taught him how to drink. He didn't drink before.

But what did I end up with? A surveyor and a drunk!

I saw him and just went crazy.

At the community club of VEF electronics plant.

130 couples start a new life together.

They believe in love,

the breadth of the human soul and mutual respect.

The October Revolution gave a dream and a goal

to the parents of these young people.

Now the October Revolution gives meaning to their own lives.

There's a hole in the can.

What a shame, my goodness!

Too much. - Too much?

That's why I say, take it from the little can.

Take a cup.

Just take some away.

What is it? Too much or too little? - Too little.

Too little. - So pour some more in.

Yeah, love is blind.

It clouds the mind.

There was one, then another. And I picked my dear Varis.

I thought � he's so handsome he'll never marry me.

Two years we lived together informally.

But then he said, let's go to the marriage registry.

So that's how we got married.

Sit down! Let's sit for a while!

That's the master lying there. Yours of course, not mine!

I'm happy to have my job.

Because then I don't have to think so much.

About my husband, who died so suddenly.

It's only been two years, not much time.

He got sick and died in a month and a half.

Yes, he was the love of my life. Not now when we were old.

When we were young, of course!

26 years I worked here with the eggs...

One can of yolks, one can of whites and 21 kilos for the frosting.

That's not little, that's normal.

I want to see my son home again, that's what I live for.

That's my greatest wish.

I want him back alive and well.

I want to see him.

Yes, to kiss him. I haven't touched him for two years.

My son is in prison for 13 years.

He lost everything: wife, child...

And I don't know what for.

A friend came with some strangers,

they robbed his house, took away cash, and jewellery,

abused his wife...

So then he shot the guys.

My son was the best son in the worid.

He was a great husband and father. Provided for his wife and child.

He had two jobs at the Staburadze cake factory.

You have a shop here?

We have a shop here, so it's okay.

Aha, buy me a Bible, please.

And mail it to me if you can.

Where am I supposed to get it? - A Bible? It's not like before.

Now you can buy them anywhere.

Get me an ordinary Bible. Not the New Testament, just the old Bible.

Jeez, you turned religious on me in jail?

No, I just want to read it. - Where did you cut your hair like that?

Don't worry, it'll grow back in a month. Then it will be just like before.

Look at that there, and you are practically bald!

And your hands are so soft now.

Well, that's just how it is...

Everybody sends you their regards.

Give them mine. Tell them it's okay.

I do some sports. I am the third ranking man in the cell.

We are six or seven in a 10-man cell.

Life is normal.

That's good.

You just see to it that everything is well for you.

How's my godmother? - Running to the doctors again.

It's the weather, the changing weather. - It's her blood pressure.

I love him most of all.

Some grandmothers just talk about their granddaughters.

Now it is just my granddaughter, just her. But my son is still closest to my heart.

In an economic sense I have become like my son, like a man,

since I have to support my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter.

My daughter-in-law can't start work.

She has to go to the prison. Run around getting all the permits.

Sometimes no one is there.

Can a working person do all that? Even once a month, delivering a package?

They start queuing at four or five in the morning just to deliver the package.

Or to have a visit with a prisoner.

How many kilos heavier is the pig than the sheep?

One.

How so one?

The pig weighs 57 kilos, and the sheep weighs one.

You subtract one from 57.

So it is 56 kilos heavier...

The pig is 56 kilos heavier than the sheep.

Uldis gave 16 stamps to his friend. How many stamps are left in the album?

Gave it to whom? - A friend.

Now count it.

So where are those 27 stamps?

He had 27, minus what he gave his friend.

And what happened to those 42 and he got 27 more?

So what do you want? 30 santims?

No, 50.

So you owe me one lats now.

The neighbours are pensioners, or sick.

And they think I am well off.

Especially on days off.

They come to borrow a lat or so.

l usually get change for a five lats note so that I have something to lend them.

If 1 had a lot of money, I wouldn't work.

I would travel abroad.

I would buy a car with a driver

to take me to the woods or a lake.

1 would live like the upper class.

We wouldn't hesitate.

Spending is something we'd know how to do.

If I were in the same situation

I don't know if someone would lend me a lat.

I don't really know.

I wouldn't like to have to ask.

It is better to give than to ask.

Hi, Aina. A couple of lats till my salary?

Thanks.

Wouldn't you like to meet someone?

I have enough of this.

An old geezer from the warehouse is hanging around.

His wife died on him.

He wants to be my boyfriend and spend the night.

But I said no and my daughter-in-law wouldn't allow it.

I know him from the factory, he is crazy.

My husband was an �ngel by comparison.

Just like my dog and my cat, my husband was mine.

Mine is mine, not a stranger.

I can't tell a stranger what to do or curse him out or whatever.

But I could do everything with my husband.

Cursed him out, shouted, and it was good again.

Sometimes I thought I would be better off if he hadn't been around.

But now that he is gone, I miss him.

I am completely alone.

Don't you hope to find someone?

No, no, I don't know.

A fortune-teller said I would have another husband.

But I don't believe that stuff.

It was interesting, though. She said a stranger would come and stay.

But that was three years ago and he still hasn't come.

So what is happiness? I don't know... Work, maybe.

At my age, what can happiness be?

Having your health, having work, getting paid.

Being able to help others.

That's happiness.