AllMovie

A family is confronted with an unexpected and troubling new arrival in this emotional drama from Russia. Yulik Krymov (Leonid Yarmolnik) is a scientist and author who shares his home with his wife Rita (Yelena Yakovleva) and their two children, Anya (Marianna Ilyina) and Igor (Artyom Shalimov). Their domestic calm is shattered one day when Yulik discovers he has a third child he never knew about -- Pavel (Daniil Spivakovsky), the product of a long-forgotten one-night stand 20 years ago. Pavel has recently arrived home after suffering severe injuries as a Russian soldier fighting in Chechnya; his mother can no longer care for him, and has decided it is Yulik's turn to mind his son. Physically scarred and emotionally ravaged, Pavel is hardly a comforting presence, and Igor makes no secret of his fear and distrust of the new arrival, but his younger sister, Anya, has a kinder heart and befriends the shattered soul. To Rita, however, Pavel is a reminder of Yulik's decades-old infidelity, and his presence drives a wedge between her and her husband. Meanwhile, Pavel's need for expensive surgery, his powerful delusions that Chechnyan soldiers are hiding in the attic, and his insistence that his best friend will be coming to visit soon add up to far more than the family is able to deal with.