WINDOW TO PARIS

In a scruffy St. Petersburg apartment an old women has died. Or has she? Her cat is still there, and appears to be well fed. A curious neighbor, Tchiyov, investigates one night, following the cat into an old wardrobe and out a fire escape into an unfamiliar night. With a touch of magic surrealism, Tchiyov has passed from drab post-communist Russia to the vivid street of Paris! Whimsical and light as air, WINDOW TO PARIS is a comedy of capitalism, an enchanting fantasy in which Tchiyov's neighbors embark on a frenzied shopping spree, going through the magical window and returning with free goodies from the West-from pate to a car, which is somehow hoisted into the living room. Tchiyov even develops a love interest in Paris, an artist named Nicole, who finds herself in a curious predicament. You see, the window is set to close on a certain date, a deadline which spurs everyone into bizarre action. Charming and wryly political, WINDOW TO PARIS layers humor over social commentary-comic therapy for the stark reality of a Russia in slow decay. In Russian with English subititles.