Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Part One

In 1958, three young women, Katerina, Lyudmila, and Antonina, live in Moscow in a workers' dormitory, having emigrated from rural villages. Antonina is seeing Nikolai, a reserved but kind young man whose parents have a dacha in the country, while Katerina is serious and hardworking, working in a factory while dreaming of earning a degree in chemistry. When she is asked to house-sit for her well-to-do Moscow relatives, Lyudmila, flirty and impetuous, invites herself along and convinces Katerina to throw a dinner party as a ploy to meet successful men. At the party, Lyudmila talks with Sergei, a famous ice hockey player, while Katerina meets Rudolf, a smooth talker who works as a cameraman for a local television station. During Antonina and Nikolai's wedding, Lyudmila and Antonina learn that Katerina is pregnant. Rudolf refuses to marry Katerina, who gives birth to a daughter, Aleksandra. Lyudmilla and Sergei marry.

Part Two

Twenty years later, in 1978, Katerina has become the executive director of a large factory, living with her now 20-year-old daughter in a nice apartment. She, Lyudmila and Antonina are still close; Lyudmilla has divorced Sergei, who has quit playing hockey and become an alcoholic, she works at a dry-cleaning and still seeks a bridegroom (preferably a general) while Antonina is happily married to Nikolai and lives in the countryside with their three children.

One evening, as Katerina is returning home, she meets Gosha, who begins a conversation with her after she notices his dirty shoes. Gosha is an intelligent tool-and-die maker in a research institute (where his instrument maintenance skills are an enormously valued help to his scientist coworkers), and Katerina finds him insightful enough to begin dating him. Gosha states his belief that a woman should not make more money than her husband, so Katerina only reveals she works in a factory, but not as its director. As their romance progresses, Rudolf (now he changed his western name for an old-russian Rodion) unexpectedly reenters Katerina's life, and tells her he wants to meet his daughter. Katerina curtly tells him that she does not want to see him again, but he shows up uninvited at her apartment and tells Gosha and Aleksandra about the interview, revealing Katerina's executive position (and high salary) to Gosha. Gosha's pride is hurt, and he leaves the apartment; unable to stop him, Katerina reveals to Aleksandra that Rudolf is her father.

Gosha disappears from Katerina's life, and she becomes frantic. A week later, Lyudmila, Antonina, and Nikolai come to her apartment to comfort her. Nikolai gathers what little information Katerina knows about Gosha (which does not even include his last name) and finds him drinking alone, still stung by Katerina's "betrayal". Nikolai convinces Gosha to return home, and, alone with Katerina and Aleksandra, Gosha asks for dinner. As he eats, Katerina watches him, saying "I've been looking for you for such a long time." "Eight days", Gosha replies, to which Katerina, with tears in her eyes, repeats, "I've been looking for you for such a long time."

• Vera Alentova – Katerina Aleksandrovna Tikhomirova ("Katya")
• Irina Muravyova – Lyudmila Sviridova ("Lyuda")
• Raisa Ryazanova – Antonina Buyanova ("Tosya")
• Aleksey Batalov – Georgy Ivanovich ("Gosha"), Katya's partner
• Aleksandr Fatyushin – Sergei Gurin ("Seryozha"), a hockey player, Lyuda's ex-husband
• Boris Smorchkov – Nikolai, Tosya's husband
• Viktor Uralsky – Mikhail Ivanovich, Nikolai's father
• Valentina Ushakova – Anna Nikitichna, Nikolai's mother
• Yuri Vasilyev – Rodion Rachkov ("Rudolph"), Aleksandra's father
• Yevgeniya Khanayeva – Rodion's mother
• Liya Akhedzhakova – Olga Pavlovna, single's club director
• Zoya Fyodorova – "Aunt" Pasha, dormitory secretary
• Natalya Vavilova – Aleksandra, Katya's daughter
• Oleg Tabakov – Vladimir, Katya's lover
• Vladimir Basov – Anton Kruglov, deputy chief of the central board
• Alexander Borodyansky – Gosha's friend
• Garri Bardin – chemical plant chief engineer
• Cameo appearances:
  • Andrei Voznesensky
  • Innokenty Smoktunovsky
  • Georgi Yumatov
  • Leonid Kharitonov
  • Tatyana Konyukhova
  • Pavel Rudakov
  • Veniamin Nechayev

• Moskva slezam ne verit, translated officially as "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" , is a Russian proverb meaning "don't complain, solve your problems by yourself".
• Valentin Chernykh admitted that he received many proposals from Hollywood at that time, but he rejected all of them, since he thought that any remakes of the movie would fail.[11]
• Vitaly Solomin, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Oleg Yefremov, and Leonid Dyachkov auditioned for the part of Gosha. However, none of them convinced the director to take them, and he even wanted to play the main character himself, until he saw Aleksey Batalov in the film My Dear Man on television.[12]
• It was also difficult to find someone apt for the part of Katerina. Many well known actresses such as Anastasiya Vertinskaya, Zhanna Bolotova, Irina Kupchenko, Natalya Sayko, Valentina Telichkina and Margarita Terekhova auditioned for the part, but most of them did not like the script, so the part eventually went to the director’s wife, Vera Alentova.[13]

• Jamaica by Robertino
• Les Routiers by Yves Montand
• Bésame Mucho
• Satirical couplets ("The Diplomatic Couplets") from c.1954 by Pavel Rudakov and Veniamin Nechaev
• Daddy Cool by Boney M
• Давай закурим (Let's take a smoke) by Klavdiya Shulzhenko
• Александра (Aleksandra) by Sergey Nikitin and Tatyana Nikitina
• Диалог у новогодней ёлки (Dialogue by the New Year tree) by Sergey Nikitin and Tatyana Nikitina

• List of submissions to the 53rd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Soviet submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears at IMDb
• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears at AllMovie
• Watch Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears online at official Mosfilm site with English subtitles
• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears at RussianFilmHub.com
• An interview with Vladimir Menshov (Russian)
• Trailer and Screenshots