Sun of the Sleepless

The director dedicated this lyrical epic filmconfession to the memory of his father who was a doctor The films protagonist an ambulance doctor conducts dangerous experiments in search of a vitally important vaccine His wife believes in his work though his daughter would not understand him His son who is absolutely unlike his father in character is trying to protect him But selfdenial in the name of science proves too high a price Just when he is on the verge of discovery the doctor loses everything he has gathered as a result of his twentyyearlong work This loss brings him even closer to his son The shooting of the film continued for seven years 19851992 making it a metaphorical culmination of the Soviet cinematography and the Soviet way of life as a whole