Yana Nikitina

In capital city Baku, eminent editor Yusef Abranov and director Mehmet are determined to get their latest movie made by any means necessary, after being shut down by the bankrupt national studio. Following various schemes, the only way left to raise the cash is to marry off Yusef’s son to the daughter of the rich guy who’s bought Yusef’s bizarre, mirror-filled house.

Along with the dangerous adventures, the film also reflects the love of two young heroes. As in Romeo and Juliet, they are the children of two opposing sides.

The film takes place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku at the end of the 1980s. At this time, the Soviet Union was starting to fall apart, and with this came the start of a number of ethnic conflicts. Fariz and his family move into a Baku apartment block from war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh. Fariz's relations with his new neighbors are strained by his accusations that it was people like them who failed to support the Azeris in their conflict with ethnic Armenians. The only one who stands up to him is Alik, who acts as peacemaker between him and the older inhabitants of the building. Alik has no reservations about brandishing his gun in order to keep the peace. One day, the apartment managers want to evict a number of musicians who have been squatting in the basement. Alik gets involved, but soon discovers the situation is more complicated that he first believed.

Elbrus Tamayev, a guy from a working-class family, was brought up in the spirit of fundamental male principles: not to offend the weak, to be able to fight back and help those in need. During his school years, he makes a friend and a girlfriend. Elbrus gets a job on a dry cargo ship. His friend pulls off a drug scam. It is exposed, and Elbrus becomes the scapegoat in this case... He is sentenced to life imprisonment in a prison for especially dangerous criminals, from which it is impossible to escape. But the hero - now his name is none other than Graf Krestovsky - succeeds twenty years later. He returns to his homeland and begins to take revenge on those who treated him so cruelly.