Autumn Marathon

Autumn Marathon (Russian: Осенний марафон) is a 1979 Soviet romantic comedy-drama, a winner of 1979 Venice Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival and 1980 Berlin Film Festival awards in the best director and best actor categories. It was also selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 52nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

It starred Oleg Basilashvili as Andrei Bouzykine, a married English-to-Russian translator in Leningrad who is going through a mid-life crisis and struggling to stand up for himself in his tangled relationships with his wife, mistress, neighbors, and co-workers. The cast included such notable Soviet performers as Yevgeny Leonov, Natalya Gundareva, Marina Neyolova, Borislav Brondukov, Nikolai Kryuchkov, and Galina Volchek. It was directed by Georgiy Daneliya.

Plot
Andrei Buzykin (Oleg Basilashvili) is an aged man, an experienced translator who collaborates with a Leningrad publishing house, and a teacher at Leningrad University. In his personal life, he is torn between his wife Nina (Natalya Gundareva) and his young lover Alla (Marina Neyolova). Alla loves him and wants him to have a child with her. Wife, woman aged, tortured by life and family problems. However, Andrei does not consider it possible to change his life and continues to live with his wife and meet with his mistress, supporting the apparent normality of the relationship with ridiculous explanations.

Buzykin’s gentleness and inability to say no are manifested in his relationship with others, for example, with his guest, Danish professor Hansen (Norbert Kuhinke), who literally forces him to do a jog with him in the morning. Andrei is also used by a colleague, the incompetent Varvara (Galina Volchek), who, in addition to everything else, also intervenes in his personal life. Neighbor, locksmith Kharitonov (Evgeny Leonov), Buzykin, despite being busy with work, cannot refuse when he forces him and Hansen to drink with him, and then go mushrooming into the forest. Andrei, who is not doing well on time, is losing his position in the publishing house.

Alla is annoyed by Andrei’s indecision, and she tries to break with him.

Lena, the daughter of Buzykin and Nina, already living with her family, with her husband flies on a business trip for two years to the distant island of Zhokhov, without even consulting her parents, which becomes a big shock for Nina.

After seeing off her daughter, Buzykin confesses to Nina in the "ended" novel, but in a conversation accidentally mentions that he was in the sobering-up area (although he simply took away from there Hansen, whom Kharitonov watered). Tormented by suspicion, Nina takes this for another ridiculous lie and quarrels with him, and then leaves the house. After this, Buzykin, whom Nina distrusted and especially kicked in despair against the box in which the brick was placed, was pissed off, trying to build relations with others more decisively and harshly, but... Alla called him, who did not lose hope of being with him, during The wife returns from this conversation and asks Andrei hopefully whether he really has “everything there”? And he, in his usual voice, again said to Alla: “I’m writing it down, tomorrow at seven pulpits,” and both women simultaneously and painfully realize that nothing has changed for each of them...

Farewell code: against the backdrop of the evening city, the ridiculous Buzykin in a shirt, tie and trousers runs his marathon along with the right sports Hansen...

Cast

 * Oleg Basilashvili as Andrey Pavlovich Buzykin
 * Natalya Gundareva as Nina Yevlampyevna Buzykina
 * Marina Neyolova as Alla Mikhaylovna Yermakova – Buzykin's Mistress
 * Yevgeny Leonov as Vasily Ignatyevich Kharitonov – Buzykin's Neighbour
 * Norbert Kuchinke as Bill Hansen, Danish Professor
 * Nikolai Kryuchkov as Uncle Kolya, Alla's Neighbour
 * Galina Volchek as Varvara Nikitichna
 * Olga Bogdanova as Yelena – Buzykin's Daughter (as O.Bogdanova)