Radmila Shchegoleva

Alienated from the rest of the scientific Institute in which they live, a lonely housewife and her teenage son break the ultimate taboo, with only their submissive maid to bear witness.

Katya, a young librarian, believes in love, but her ideals are crushed by reality. After a string of disappointing affairs, Katya finally finds tenderness and understanding in the arms of her colleague, a journalist called Tanya. But then the First Department interferes: the state security services see this relationship as unacceptable for a Soviet woman.

«The Empire» is a film in the genre of a novel, in four books. «The Return of the Prodigal Son», «War and Peace», «The Big Bang», lasting 8.5 hours. These are the dialogues of the two protagonists — Krupitsa and Dau — and scenes from the life of the Institute of Physical Problems (from the year 38 to 52). The Big Terror, Power and Man, Revolution and War, Christianity, Buddhism, Shamanism, the Atomic Bomb, Scientists and Physicists, etc. «State security warriors», wives, girlfriends, employees — that is the theme of the novel, which tells the story of the destiny and resistance of a genius in the era of dystopian Empire.

It is 1956. Dau is a distinguished Soviet scientist who meets up with the love of his youth – Maria, a Greek actress – during her three day visit to Moscow. They haven't seen each other for 25 years. Dau is a successful and prosperous scientist, but feels excruciatingly dissatisfied with his family life. Through Maria he hopes to regain lost harmony and beauty, but reality intrudes when Nora, Dau's wife, returns home.

Once just a girl from the provinces, Nora is now married to a successful scientist and lives together with her family within the confines of a secret and privileged Moscow institute. Nora is visited by her mother for the first time since her wedding. Her mother closely observes the atmosphere within the couple's home, trying to work out whether her daughter is happy. During the course of their intimate conversations the complexity of their contradictory relationship is revealed.

The series consists of ten films based on love and erotic works of Ukrainian literature from the middle of the 19th century to the present day. The films explore love as a multidimensional phenomenon. This is a kind of retrospective slice of the history of society, culture, and art. There are changes in the attitude towards a woman, mother, lover.