Transit

The wartime winter of 1942–1943. A military airstrip in inhospitable Chukotka is the setting for an encounter between three civilisations, and a bizarre tangle of human destinies. Fighters piloted by elegant Americans arrive here from Alaska, and barely trained Russian youngsters transport them to the front. Their naive friendliness upsets the vigilant local bosses, while the transit flights are ruining the local hunters. In the interests of allied protocol, political deportees are even allowed on the base: a famous design engineer is here as a cook, and a neurologist grows vegetables in a greenhouse. The former wife of a fanatical commander works here as an interpreter and takes care of a wonderfully equipped library. Fleeting passions meld together humanity and cruelty, unconditional, like love and death. What was the truth of what happened here, and what was illusion? A lot of things become clear only years later, in the year of Stalin’s death....