Disappeared empire

1973 year. Sergei and his friend Stepan study at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. Sergey meets a classmate Luda. They have a relationship. Lyudmila had a birthday, and Sergei decided to give her the record of The Rolling Stones , which he bought from his hands for a lot of money from the blacksmiths . He got the money by handing over his grandfather's books to a second-hand bookstore. However, when he comes to her and presents a gift, he puts the record on play, it turns out that this is not The Rolling Stones , but Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake , whose records are freely sold everywhere. But the heroes are not very upset and even laugh at this funny event. The main thing is that they are together.

Soon a new girl appeared on their course - a beautiful girl, Katya, and Sergei, taking advantage of the fact that Lyuda is sick, begins to flirt with her. Luda finds out about this and asks Sergey not to come to her anymore. Sergey’s friend, Stepan, secretly in love with Lyudmila and gives her all kinds of signs of attention, helps her with school, and they spend time more and more together.

In the summer, their group goes to practice in one provincial town, and there Sergey again tries to make peace with Luda, but to no avail. Then, in revenge, he offers Catherine to go with him to rest in Gagra, and she agrees. In Gagra, young people quarrel, and Sergei leaves. Upon arrival in Moscow, Sergey calls Luda again, she goes down to the porch and tells Sergey that she is pregnant from Stepan. Sergei is furious when he meets Stepan, he spits on the floor in front of him.

Soon, Sergey’s mother dies from a serious illness, and he and his brother remain with their grandfather (father, grandfather-in-law, left them long ago). Grandfather asks Sergei someday to go to the so-called "city of winds", which is located in Central Asia, where grandfather and father once worked on an archaeological expedition. Sergey sends his brother to the wedding with a gift - a Khorezm toy, once found by his father and given to his mother (telling about this to Sergey, the mother called Khorezm “the disappeared empire”). With difficulty, since not a single taxi went there, Sergei still managed to visit the place that his grandfather spoke about.

Then events are carried forward today. The airport. A man walks up to Sergey (who is behind the scenes) and asks if he will recognize him. It turns out that this is Stepan, who emigrated to Finland in the 1990s and is not going to return: "My address is the Soviet Union." Sergey tells him that he works as a translator with Farsi , and their mutual friend, the clever son of the diplomat Kostya, with whom they argued more than once, “where is better” and “what will happen in thirty years”, “didn’t fit into our life”, drunk and died. Stepan, in turn, tells Sergei that, having married Luda, they, having lived a year, broke up ...

• Alexander Lyapin - Sergey Narbekov
• Lydia Milyuzina - Luda Beletskaya
• Egor Baranovsky - Stepan Molodtsov
• Ivan Kupreenko - Kostya Denisov
• Armen Dzhigarkhanyan - Sergey's grandfather
• Olga Tumaykina - Sergey's mother
• Vladimir Ilyin - Stepan Molodtsov today
• Tatyana Yakovenko - mother of Luda
• Ioannina Kalganova - Katya
• Vasily Shakhnazarov - Misha, Sergey's brother
• Stanislav Eventov - Associate Professor Grigoryants
• Yana Krainova - a girl from a restaurant (episodic role)

• Script writer: Sergey Rokotov , Evgeny Nikishov
• Director: Karen Shakhnazarov
• Operator: Sandor Berkeshi
• Production Designer: Lyudmila Kusakova
• Composer: Konstantin Shevelev
• Costume Designer: Alla Oleneva

The film uses music from the bands Deep Purple (composition " Smoke on the Water ") and Shocking Blue (composition " Venus ").

The shooting took place in 4 countries: Russia ( Moscow ), Abkhazia ( Gagra ), Uzbekistan ( Khiva ) and Turkmenistan ( Kunya-Urgench ).

In 2012, another editing version of the film called “Love in the USSR” was released. This version differs from the "classic" more lyrical installation. Almost all the time, a lyrical musical theme sounds reminiscent of the music of Tariverdiev and Petrov for Soviet comedies on the theme of love of mature people. During installation, some pieces of off-screen sounds are reduced. Most likely, the film only benefited from this, although, of course, both versions have a right to exist, but if by nature you like the lyrics more, see the 2012 version.

• "The Vanished Empire" on the site "Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema"
• The film "The Vanished Empire" in the online movie theater "Mosfilm"