President and his granddaughter

Moscow, 1987, New Year's Eve. In the 25th maternity hospital, an obstetrician and his nurse are on duty. They make a detour, after which they sit down to celebrate the New Year . But suddenly an ambulance arrives at the maternity hospital with a pregnant woman - the daughter-in-law of one general who had an accident and as a result she had premature birth. Despite the doctor's exhortations that the gestation period could tragically turn out for the baby, the fierce general, threatening with a gun, forces him to take birth. The baby is born dead, and the frightened doctor decides to replace him with a living one. Fortunately, on the same day, another woman gave birth to twin girls, one of which was just replaced. Ironically, both girls are called Masha.

Twelve years pass by. New Years Eve 2000. Both Masha have already grown. One of them is the granddaughter of the president of Russia (formerly a general), and the other is the daughter of the poor artist Tatyana, her husband died in Afghanistan. On New Year's day, the parents of the president’s granddaughter bring their daughter to him, and they will celebrate the New Year abroad (in Paris). The girl does not know another life: there are a lot of entertainments around, computer games, going to the theater, dinners with the Minister of Health - the same obstetrician, who later married his nurse and gave birth to a son - they scared them around. Masha, the artist’s daughter, spends almost all day on the street selling fresh newspapers and handing out glass containers along with other yard children. One day, after an unsuccessful attempt to sell a newspaper to the son of the Minister of Health, one of them takes away sweets and a postcard, which turns out to be an invitation card to the Kremlin carnival. Children give a ticket to Masha.

Masha, the granddaughter of the President, is also invited to where she should play the role of carnival princess. During the carnival, Uncle Sasha’s granddaughter’s bodyguard accidentally confuses the booths and forces another Masha to wear a princess costume. As a result, the President’s granddaughter is in a suit of Cheburashka. Uncle Sasha, not even suspecting that he had mixed up the girls, takes Masha “home”. The granddaughter of the president is taken away by Tatyana, who was expecting her daughter from the Kremlin. At first, Masha thinks that she was taken hostage, trying to escape, but later she gets to know Tatyana closer and finds a common language with her.

Masha, Tatyana’s daughter, finds herself in a luxurious estate. At first, she thinks that this is some kind of surprise, but when she finds out that she is on the estate of the President himself, who also considers her her granddaughter, she, unlike the other Masha, behaves aggressively, also tries to run unsuccessfully. The President calls on the Minister of Health for help. He immediately realized that it was at the carnival that the girls were replaced. The minister’s wife - an employee of the children's neurological center - is taken to resolve the situation. She asks Masha to act like she’s the granddaughter of the President and no one else takes Tatyana’s address from her in order to eventually exchange the girls.

Masha, Tatyana’s daughter, decides to influence the difficult nature of her “grandfather”. When she buys up the entire collection of her mother’s paintings, she chastises him for the way he treats them, offends Uncle Sasha, who also does not understand art. Later, she calmly finds out with the "grandfather" of the relationship and apologizes to Uncle Sasha. One day, from the son of the Minister of Health, Masha learns that thanks to his father, she almost died 12 years ago.

The minister comes the next day to take Masha to his wife, allegedly to a psychologist. When he enters her room, Masha points to him the “grandfather” pistol she took without asking him, which he once threatened with him. Having discovered the missing weapons, the President comes there too. The Minister of Health tells him the whole truth about how he separated the sisters then 12 years ago. Hardly believing what happened, the President drowns his gun in the aquarium, then orders Uncle Sasha to take Masha wherever she says. Before leaving, Masha says goodbye to her "grandfather", who nevertheless fell in love with her. Arriving home, she meets her sister, the real granddaughter of the President. They change clothes and each go to his home.

Both families have fun celebrating the New Year. During all this time, the President has changed greatly in character under the influence of the second Masha. At the end of the film, he shows that, despite his job responsibilities, he is as simple a man as all people. The film ends with a call from both Mash-sisters, who are vigorously discussing recent events.

According to the information of the film critic and journalist Mikhail Brashinsky , partly based on the presentation of the situation by Elena Paradise , the film was preceded by serious disagreements between the production company ( KinoMost ) and Paradise, as the author of the script, which initially offered it to producers under the condition of their own directing. By signing a contract with Paradise, the company eventually fired her on the basis of creative disagreement, transferring the shooting to Tigran Keosayan. Having filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, Yelena Rajskaya made a decision to ban filming before the end of the trial, and then a court decision to ban the film company from using the author’s name and the original script name, as well as to publish a film created on its basis. However, the film was released. ^[one]

The film was included in the main program of the Kinotavr Russian Film Festival in 2001 and was awarded a special jury prize “For Humor and Kindness on the Screen” ^[2] . At the same time, the very selection of the program of this festival received an ambiguous assessment - in particular, the magazine “Art of Cinema”, mentioning the claim for a prize for directing “The President and his granddaughter” and “ Down House ” by Roman Kachanov , called it “evidence of the complete loss of criteria” and “ competition for the best bad film ” ^[3] .

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• The President and His Granddaughter on the Internet Movie Database