Владимир Максимов

Farmer Nikolay has long ago settled on Mars with his family. He leads a peaceful life and tends to his robot-aided farmstead until the Head of a large corporation comes to Mars to get rid of the village and launch a new production line.

Four generations of a Jewish family live under one roof. Despite living next door to a synagogue, the Abramovich’s, with the exception of Grandmother Musa, are not strong on Jewish tradition, religion or identity: Boris’ business is buying, selling (and eating) pork. Meanwhile his son, David hides his origins from his friends, and his wife, Alla has no idea how much she resembles the stereotypical Jewish mother. Everything changes one day when Boris is struck by lightning. While unconscious, he is visited by the spirit of Haim, a long dead and somewhat obnoxious family ancestor. Haim reveals that a long time ago he committed a terrible sin, which resulted in a curse being placed on the entire family. It turns out that only Boris can remove the curse – by setting free Haim’s soul!

Victor Gromov, once a legend of Moscow’s criminal underworld known under the nickname “Butcher”, has since retired and now spends his days enjoying life on his farm. One day, Victor’s former “colleagues” show up and tell him that he must store the mafia’s common fund in his offshore bank account. Victor has no choice but to help them. Several months later, on the day when he is supposed to give the money back, Victor gets hit on the head by a falling billboard. As a result, he forgets the password to his bank account. Fleeing for his life from his former cronies, Victor decides to hide in a freight train’s boxcar but ends up getting locked inside. The train departs, and several days later he finds himself thousands of kilometers away from Moscow, in a small northern town called Polyarny, which, as it turns out, is not so easy to get out of...