On the eve of his fortieth birthday, Sergey Makarov is summing up his life. But nothing brings satisfaction to him, neither wife, mistress, work, or friends. At forty a person achieves many things, but previous ideals often lose their value. Sergey becomes completely confused, he is not bound to his wife with anything other than obligations, and he develops affection for a young girl named Alisa. Sergey is loved by a beautiful woman Larisa, working with him at the drawing board, but he ignores her crush towards him. However, he uses her car, knowing that she is always willing to bail him out. Sergei's supervisor, Nikolai Pavlovich loves her but without reciprocation. Alice has one boyfriend, a young guy, slickly wooing her. He easily wins against Sergei in arm wrestling, to which Sergei responds with shouting "cock-a-doodle-doo" under the table at his birthday party, to which all colleagues and his young sweetheart are invited. The main character of the film begins to experience a middle-age crisis; it seems that a big part of everything he wanted, is in fact, nothing more than empty vanity. Constant feeling of discomfort and dissatisfaction makes the hero rush between the people and do strange things in the hope that there will be a change in his life, that something will happen what was previously unavailable. "Oh, Sergei, Sergei, how jealous I was of you in college,... but now, I regret it, everything about your life is topsy-turvy, – says Sergei's boss, Nicholai Pavlovich in a conversation in the kitchen, thus explaining Sergei's strange behavior which is evident to everyone. – Well, you are sick Sergei, do you not comprehend this?"
Famous actor/director Nikita Mikhalkov makes a cameo appearance in the film, playing a film director. The role of Sergei Makarov was originally designed with him in mind. But when working on the script, director Roman Balayan saw the TV film "We, the Undersigned" starring Oleg Yankovsky and decided that he should play the main character.
Release and awards
The film was not made available until early 1983, initially being granted a very limited release, and was not widely seen until the time of Perestroika. With the film being exposed to larger audiences, it went on to gain critical acclaim. Yankovsky received the 1987 USSR State Prize for his role.
