Valeriya Ustinova

Andrei's ex-girlfriend Tania (Anzhela Belyanskaya) has been constantly in danger of going to jail since he knew her. Their breakup was not his doing, and he is determined to keep her out of jail. Andrei (Oleg Menshikov) has a notion that, if he can raise enough money, he can smuggle her out of Russia into New York, where all will be well. While Andrei's grasp on reality may be tenuous, his ability to maneuver and scheme is unimpaired. He is a student filmmaker, and the kind of money he needs to save Tania with doesn't grow on trees. He begins raising funds by mugging men at public toilets, and graduates to stealing the drug money accumulated by more serious gangsters. After he has raised the money to accomplish his goal, his girl, the light of his life, confesses that she despises him, and then goes out and gets arrested.

In an ordinary industrial Soviet town, notable only for presence of a radio-telescope, people start behaving strangely, in a robotic manner, while assuming geometry-inspired aliases and organizing into a new hierarchy. The phenomenon spreads via a device of alien origin, called “the mediator”, capable of implanting extraterrestrial minds into human bodies. The aliens are bound by limitations of the terrestrial technology, having to use the means at the disposal of humans to prepare the grounds for the full-scale invasion. With “the mediator" being unable to subdue minds of children, lunatics, geniuses, and rebels, a struggle over the fate of the town and the human civilization ensues.