MARUSSIA

In cities like Paris there are countless people from Eastern Europe who have forsaken their homelands because they can see no future there. Lucia and her little daughter Marussia are two such people. They have been thrown out by the Russian acquaintances they were staying with and must tramp the streets with their trolley suitcases searching for somewhere else to live. A Russian Orthodox priest offers them their first night's shelter. They spend the second night in a homeless hostel and party through the third with a chance acquaintance. On the fourth night they sleep clandestinely in a cinema and on the fifth with a Russian artist in a hotel … Lucia is good-looking, dresses elegantly and is certainly not shy of men. This serves the mother and her daughter well. In spite of all the uncertainties in their lives, the two frequently share tender moments. But then they have to drag their suitcases once more through the cold city with no money in their pockets and no idea where they are going. Eventually little Marussia has enough of the fact that someone else is always calling the shots.