Ballada

In Russia, cars are more than just cars. They're living entities endowed with a soul. LADA, in Russian means: The Loved One. Even 40 years after the "lunchbox on wheels" became Soviet reality on the banks of the Volga river, most Russians still drive this vehicle - a direct descendent of the Italian FIAT 124, the car of the year in 1966. BALLADA introduces us to a number of Lada drivers - from Moscow to the Taiga, from the Caucasus to Siberia. Like their Ladas, they are all survivors, telling us their stories and taking us on a subjective and poetic expedition into contemporary Russia. A modern fairy tale and a real road movie - that is, whenever the engine decides to start. As the saying goes: "Cars are nothing for a country whose citizens have succumbed to vodka and melancholy." But what good is melancholy without vodka? Production Notes

with: Michail Ivanovitsch Parnjev, Murad Arevschatian, Nikolai Andrejevitsch Akyschev, Maxim Ivanovitsch & Tajana Efimovna Xristoferov, Nessi Tausendschön (LADA)