Gerasim saves a bank from robbery, a baby who is falling from an apartment balcony and he saves the President of Russia from being assassinated and then promptly disappears.

SYNOPSIS:

http://www.magicalrealism.us/2014/06/09/gerasim-petukhov/ Gerasim Petukhov – Every Nobody is Somebody SCREENPLAY PLOT This film script tells the story of a holy fool character. The holy fool is a medieval and Renaissance Christ character used in Russian and French literature. He is a Christ-like figure who comes from nowhere to transform people’s lives. Gerasim Petukhov, who arrives in Moscow on a train and starts to protect people from one disaster after another. For instance, two thugs hold up a bank where he gets a job, and Gerasim saves the life of the bank president and the lifelong friend of the President of Russia. Gerasim saves a baby who is falling from an apartment balcony. He also saves the President of Russia from being assassinated by a deranged killer who’s escaped a mental asylum. During all this, Gerasim attracts a following as a banker and an investment counselor. He is especially helpful to small charities without a lot of money to invest. Several women throw themselves at Gerasim, but he acts with the utmost chivalry and respect. He develops a relationship with, Yekaterina, the daughter of the President of Russia. She was in the bank when it was robbed but her identity is secret from most Russians. Photographs have never been published by the media, and no family portrait has ever been issued. Yekaterina is full of live and makes beautiful art. She lights up any room she enters. Yekaterina keeps a life somewhat distant from he politician father. She wants her art to be judged on its own merits, and she can’t stand the favoritism she sometimes receives. Her only drawback is that she is an alcoholic. As the story develops, there are flashbacks to Gerasim’s childhood. Gerasim thought his mother was a beautiful blonde angel, but she was not. She had a grimy factory job. She hung out with the wrong type of people, at the wrong bars and with the wrong men. She wanted to improve her life and finding a successful man was the most important thing for her at that time. Eventually, she abandons Gerasim and is murdered by a man. Beneath all the good that’s happening in the small town, there’s the deeper story of who is Gerasim. When Yekaterina who loves him refuses to accept love and denies him, the audience finds out the surprising truth. The Kremlin doctor was a young doctor in Gerasim’s home village. There is some suspicion of Gerasim identity but the doctor vaguely remembers he was the doctor of Gerasim’s mother. There is a disturbing and not easily understood scene where Gerasim and the President’s personal physician don’t get along well and have an argument. Both the doctor and Gerasim sense something is wrong with each other. There first inclination is to dislike each other. Gerasim is afraid and leaves the Kremlin as if his life were threatened. While it arrives late in the film, the mystery of the story is, “Why is Gerasim so afraid of the doctor.” He has been so calm and heroic the entire film thus far. Gerasim’s position in society declines as a result of this strange behavior. But Gerasim seems has always be in the right place at the right time to prevent disasters from happening. Before long, Kremlin jealousy and suspicion drive the government to question his sudden arrival and motives. Finally, when Yekaterina begins to doubt him as well. Gerasim and Yekaterina have an argument about drinking. Yekaterina is a very bitter unattractive drunk. Yekaterina drinks and passes out, still beautiful, in a car in the Kremlin motor pool. Gerasim disappears as quickly as he materialized. There is a major ice storm that hits Moscow. Gerasim is shown walking down the sidewalk toward the train station without a coat. This might be the audiences first clue that he isn’t real. He could be an adoration or an angel. We learn through a flashback that the President’s personal doctor had given an abortion to Gerasim’s mother. Gerasim was never born. He arrived in Moscow to change the lives of the people he encountered and all went well until he met his abortionist and was rattled. When Yekaterina awakes, reality has changed. She is no longer dressed well. Her hair is messed up. Her makeup is smeared. There is a state funeral going on outside of the car. She gets out and walks up to the family. It is her family and funeral is that of her father. She is no longer the darling of the family. She is looked upon with scorn. The bank president at the funeral has been seriously beaten and is complaining to the man beside him about the robbery. There is a discarded newspaper on the ground after the funeral where the headlines are, “Baby Killed in Fall from Apartment.” It is a very sad day in Moscow. MORAL OF THE SCREENPLAY During the late 1970s and 1980s, it is estimated that the Soviet Union had some of the highest abortion rates in the world. Had Gerasim lived, he would have been a hero. He would have saved the bank. He would have saved the baby and the President. He would have rescued Yekaterina from a life of alcoholism.

GERASIM PETUKHOV

http://www.magicalrealism.us/2014/06/09/gerasim-petukhov/