Archangel

Lt. John Boles mourns Iris on the steamship bound for Archangel, a memory he cannot let go. An officer mistakes Iris's urn for a bottle of liquor and throws it into the sea, severing one last thread of the past. The moment frames the film's meditation on love, pride, and the roots of war.

Boles arrives as an Allied trooper and is billeted with the Danchuk household, including Geza, Jannings, Danchuk, Baba, and a baby. He asserts his authority after Geza has a seizure, and the family reacts with a mix of awe and fear toward the intruding outsider.

Geza suffers a seizure, and Boles attempts a stern, improvised medical cure. He prescribes horsehair to eat and mocks Baba's folk remedies, reinforcing his skepticism of traditional healing.

Boles spots Veronkha in a mirror and faints, convinced she is Iris, and remains under that illusion for a time. Iris has died, yet the resemblance haunts him as Veronkha's presence deepens his fixation. Meanwhile Veronkha's husband Philbin suffers amnesia and relives his wedding day.

Boles dresses in full regalia, provoking Geza's awe at his medals. Danchuk proposes punishment for Geza, but Jannings is too cowardly to flog him, so Boles steps in and administers the punishment himself, deepening Geza's admiration.

The town stages heroic battle tableaux as a narrator extols their bravery. A real clash follows, and Boles and Danchuk traverse a field of largely resting corpses, marking the grave of one fallen soldier with a simple headstone.

Boles follows Veronkha to learn her home, only to have her hypnotized by Philbin's doctor to recount their wedding night. Philbin's memory fails him again as he forgets the marriage and is seen with the front-desk girl. The doctor hints at a rumor of Veronkha's child.

The doctor mentions a rumor Veronkha has a child, and Boles jumps to the conclusion that the child is his or Iris's. In a misguided attempt to ease his own pain, he also confuses Danchuk's baby for that child and returns to his billet to console the infant.

Boles sets out to locate Veronkha's home using a treasure map that doubles as her marriage certificate. The dreamlike trek ends in failure, leaving him empty-handed and more unsettled as memory frays at the edges.

A surreal flood of rabbits signals an impending attack on the trenches. Bolsheviks break into the Geza/Danchuk home and threaten Geza after killing Jannings; Jannings, in a grotesque moment, uses his own intestines to strangle the attackers. Geza dies, his head covered by a burlap sack, and he believes his father died a hero.

Veronkha commits to renewing her marriage with Philbin and the couple travels to the Murmansk Hotel for another honeymoon. Boles trails them, and Veronkha mistakes him for Philbin, confessing false love to provoke jealousy; when she discovers he is not Philbin, she also experiences amnesia.

Boles locates Veronkha again using the treasure-map/marriage certificate and the couple reunite briefly. However, Veronkha's memory returns upon seeing Philbin, and she rejects Boles, even threatening to kill him if he ever touches her again.

With the war pressing, Boles heads back to the front and asks Danchuk to look after the baby that has become his burden in name only. He accepts the hardship of returning to battle for a cause that has grown hollow.

Geza is killed in the battle, and his ghost is reunited with his father's ghost, culminating in the realization that his father died a hero who saved him. The war's toll becomes a personal reckoning for the surviving characters.

Boles launches a last, desperate assault and is wounded by a grenade inscribed Gott strafe Kanada. He staggers along the treasure-map route to Veronkha's wedding site one last time, but ultimately leaves Archangel to return home to Canada, destroyed by the experience.