Zerograd

The film is set in an unmentioned town in the Soviet Union. Alexei Varakin (Leonid Filatov) is a Soviet engineer who travels to the town for a business trip. His purpose is to discuss potential modifications to a particular component in a series of air conditioners that his company has been sourcing from a local factory for the past fifteen years.

At the entrance of the factory, there appears to be some confusion as Alexei is having difficulty locating the pass he had recently requested. Furthermore, inside the premises, the manager's secretary carries out her duties in a state of complete nudity, yet it does not seem to be causing any concern amongst the staff. Additionally, it appears that the manager (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan) is unaware of the passing of the chief engineer several months ago. Then Alexei sits down for lunch at an oddly empty restaurant, where he is presented with a cake shaped like his own head. Alexei politely declines the offer. The cook who prepared the cake becomes distressed by this rejection and takes his own life.

After providing witness statements to the police, Alexei is eager to depart the town without delay. However, upon reaching the train station ticket counter, he discovers that all tickets have already been sold. Instead of taking him to the Perebrodino railway station, the taxi cab brings Alexei to Perebrodovo, a remote town nestled in the countryside, and it turns out it has a museum of local lore. The museum caretaker (Yevgeny Yevstigneyev) shows Alexei an exhibition that combines different cultures and time periods – from Trojans and Romans to the esteemed Soviet leaders, featuring impressive artifacts.

Alexei stops overnight at the local electrician's house, whose underage son Misha tells the guest that he will never leave this town. He provides the correct and complete name of Alexei, including his surname, first name, and patronymic, and also mentions the year of his passing (2015), as well as the names of his four daughters, on behalf of whom a memorial will be erected on the local cemetery. Anna, a local driver, appears, trying to take Alexei to Perebrodino station in her red "Zhiguli" car, where two Moscow trains stop. However, her passenger is intercepted by a black "Volga" car with police officers.

The local investigator (Alexei Zharkov) presents Alexei with indisputable evidence that the deceased cook Nikolayev was, in fact, his father. The investigator reveals that Alexei has another name, Mahmud. The town's prosecutor (Vladimir Menshov), who harbors a hidden desire to commit a crime, discloses that the tragedy at the restaurant was not a suicide but a planned murder aimed at undermining the Soviet Union's statehood.

Anna brings Alexei to the summer house of the poet Vasily Chugunov (Oleg Basilashvili). Chugunov reveals to Alexei that the deceased cook Nikolayev used to be the first rock'n'roll dance performer in their town. This happened at a youth event in 1957. The person who used to criticize Nikolayev later became the prosecutor that Alexei had talked to before. Later that evening, Alexei attends the opening of the Nikolayev Rock'n'Roll Fans Club, where esteemed members of the town are also in attendance. At this momentous occasion, Chugunov declares it as yet another triumph for democracy. The prosecutor, whom Alexei had conversed with earlier, tries to shoot himself in front of everyone, but the gun fails to fire multiple times.

In the late evening, several participants of the dance party, along with Alexei, decide to take a stroll under the night sky to admire the legendary 1,000-year-old oak tree. According to legend, the tree held immense significance in antiquity, for it bestowed incredible might upon those who dared sever its branches and claim its power as their own, thus ascending to positions of great authority. But now, the tree is dried up and dying. While the others gather branches as mementos of its former power, the prosecutor offers Alexei a chance to escape. He starts to quickly run, searching for a path in a dimly lit forest. As the sun starts to rise, he discovers a boat with no oars on a peaceful riverbank. Surrounded by the misty river, he decides to set off on a directionless journey, feeling helpless and uncertain about which way to go.

• Leonid Filatov as Alexey Varakin
• Oleg Basilashvili as writer Vasily Chugunov
• Vladimir Menshov as prosecutor Nikolay Smorodinov
• Armen Dzhigarkhanyan as factory director Pavel Palych
• Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev as keeper of local museum
• Aleksei Zharkov as police detective
• Pyotr Scherbakov as head of city party council
• Elena Arzhanik as secretary
• Tatiana Khvostikova as Anna
• Yury Sherstnev as waiter Kurdyumov
• Michael Solodovnik as Attila
• Alexander Bespaly as hospitable host
• Eugene Zernov as cook

Zero City has an approval rating of 83% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10.[2]

• Gold Hugo at 25th Chicago Film Festival for best international feature film in 1989[3]
• Silver prize at Valladolid International Film Festival in 1988
• Karen Shakhnazarov won award by European Science Fiction Society as best author and screenwriter in Soviet Union at Eurocon, 1989 in San Marino .

• List of submissions to the 62nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Soviet submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

• Zerograd at IMDb
• Zero Town on YouTube