Perestroika Page #9

never even see a hat!

So, who needs hats anyway!

First it was the party bigwigs

who went around in fur hats, now

it's the speculators.

It's never the plain folk.

I don't care if I'm being

exploited by Brezhnev or a

speculator - it's all the same!

We need justice, equality.

Everyone should be the same.

There! The true voice of Russia!

Wait a minute! If you don't let

anyone make the hats, you'll all

be going around bareheaded!

Better without hats than without

justice!

Where did you get that?

We'll spare no expense when it

comes to our own flesh and blood!

You bought it at a private

market. You can't get piglets at

a government store.

So let them grow pigs!

But not at these prices!

What prices?!

They start from nothing!

If they don't survive, you'll

never see any piglets at all!

During Stalin you could get

piglets in the stores!

During Stalin twenty million

were slaving away in labor camps!

And if you were ten minutes late

for work they'd put you away too!

At least there was order.

You see! I rest my case!

Chaos! Disaster! We're headed

for civil war!

I must say, I don't envy Gorbachev.

Trying to get this country to budge.

You've budged it enough.

Fortunately it won't be much longer.

What's that supposed to mean?

We're going to set things

straight.

And who died and left you boss?

We don't need your blessing. As

soon as these liberals bring the

country to complete collapse,

it will fall into our hands,

like a ripe fruit.

May I have this dance?

I can't dance to this.

Oh, it's simple. Come, come,

I'll show you. Come.

What is the reason for all this

gloom?

It's all so boring. All these

stupid arguments and now this

ridiculous tango.

You can leave if you're bored.

No one's keeping you from being

with kids your own age.

Kids my own age! What a joke!

Professor, you're a wise man.

Tell me, why is it all so awful?

Why is everybody so mean?

Whenever I tell someone I want

to go to America, they tell

"it's no better over there"!

Like they want to leave you

nothing to hope for.

In Chekhov's play, the three sisters

want to get away from the boonies,

they keep saying "we want to go

to Moscow",

and in the whole play there's no

villain mean enough to tell them

"it sucks there too".

Happiness is not found in Moscow

or New York. It's here.

You just need time to find it.

Have you?

I have.

Want to go see the old church?

What's the matter?

My mother's interest in

architecture is amazing!

She has just invited Greenberg

to see an old church!

A church! What church?

Where is it?

That's right! There's a famous

old church near here.

Let's all go see it together!

Many years past since this

glorious morning in Moscow,

but I still remember it as it

happened only yesterday.

You seem troubled, my man. What

have you to be troubled about?

Master, life has somehow lost

much of its luster.

It's called a mid-life crisis.

It's much similar to adolescence.

It's a troubled time. Difficult.

But It will pass. You'll get

over it. Everyone does.

I feel like my mid-life crisis

is also happening to Russia,

to America, to the whole human

race.

And if you believe the theory that

man is a reflection of the Universe,

than, it's also happening to the

Universe.

I don't understand this world,

this life.

There's a story, of a woman who

asked Thomas Alva Edison to

explain electricity

because she did not understand

it.

He answered, that he didn't

understand it either and told

her to "Just use it!"

Here it is called "perestroika"

- the restructuring.

Although some people seem to think

it's a complete collapse, an end.

If you look at the film Jill is

making you'd think the whole

planet was doomed for sure.

You tell me it's only a phase,

that I'm going through a

"restructuring" of my own,

but I feel like my life is

ending.

Adolescents feel that way. Some

of them even go so far as to

actually commit suicide.

But there are few of those.

Most restructure and survive.

Look at Elena. How she suffers!

That's also a "perestroika", of sorts.

And it's not so bad. It's, in

fact, what makes her so attractive.

To you, for example.

Master, I am old enough to be

her father!

So what?

Why do you tell me all this?

To ease your conscience about

your attraction to Elena.

It's not so easy! It's quite possible,

you know, that she is my daughter.

No, she is not.

What makes you so sure?

Because she is my daughter.

My loss, your luck.

Enjoying the architecture?

There is something interesting I

can show you, even my mother

doesn't know about it.

Interested? Let's go.

I come up here a lot. At dawn.

Alone. I like to be alone.

You know, Professor Gross told

me that happiness must be found

within oneself. Do you agree?

I guess.

Did you find it?

I'm afraid not.

Why not?

I don't know.

Maybe it's my fault.

Sometimes it's like some outer

force prevents it:

how can I be happy when the

world's gone mad and everything

around me is collapsing.

Is it the people? Why they don't

want to understand? Why they

don't want to hear?

Yes.

They don't hear. Not you, not

each other. Not themselves.

Nobody listens. But we can make

them hear!

Come on! Help me! You said you

heard me!

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