Intergirl

Tanya Zaitseva lives a double life in Leningrad, working as a nurse by day and catering to foreigners by night. She receives a marriage proposal from Edvard Larsen, a Swedish client who promises a gateway to the Western world. She does not marry for love, but for money, a car, an apartment, and a chance to travel.

Her closest friends in the trade, former volleyball athlete Sima Gulliver, a Baltic beauty nicknamed Kisulya, and the gorgeous Zina Meleiko, are considered the elite of prostitutes. They serve as her social circle and benchmarks of success in the trade. The film introduces this world as Tanya's everyday reality.

Back home in Leningrad, Tanya shares the good news with her mother, who still thinks of her as a nurse. Tanya candidly explains that prostitution is characteristic of all trades and that everyone sells themselves. Yet her mother cannot accept this truth and rejects the idea.

To obtain the required immigration permission from her father, who has not seen her in twenty years, Tanya learns he demands 3,000 rubles. Unable to raise the sum by ordinary means, she returns to prostitution to fund the paperwork. This turn underscores the harsh choices she must make between dream and survival.

In Sweden, Tanya quickly grows bored with the new environment. She befriends a Russian truck driver working for Sovtransavto, who helps her acclimate and who she uses to send gifts to her mother in Leningrad. The distance between her dream of a better life and the reality of living abroad becomes evident.

Her Swedish friends never forget how she earned her money in the USSR, and Edvard loves her but frequently comments on her habits. Tanya remains a stranger in a foreign land, increasingly homesick and longing to visit her mother. The world she sought in Sweden feels alien and unwelcoming.

A fellow prostitute mentions that authorities have opened a case on illegal foreign currency speculation tied to Tanya. Investigators visit her mother in Leningrad and reveal the secrets behind her daughter's earnings. Shocked and morally broken, Tanya's mother commits suicide by gassing herself in her apartment.

Skein, a neighbor, detects the gas and bursts into the apartment, dragging Tanya's mother out and attempting to revive her, though it is too late. The neighborhood rushes to help as the tragedy unfolds. This moment marks the depth of the consequences that followed Tanya's choices.

In Sweden, Tanya looks back and her intuition tells her that something bad has happened. The sense of impending doom underscores the distance between her dreams and reality. She clings to memories of home as she faces an uncertain future.

Overcome with fear, she ends her relationship with Ed and jumps into a car. She races toward the airport, hoping to escape the shrinking world around her. The panic signals a turning point as she moves toward a doomed finale.

En route to the airport, Tanya's car crashes, ending her life in a sudden tragedy. The accident seals the fate of a woman torn between two worlds. The final moments emphasize the film's themes of dream versus reality.

The drama of the final episode is reinforced by the Russian folk song Tramp, which serves as the film's leitmotif. The mournful tune ties Tanya's fate to the broader allegory of longing and loss. The song lingers as the credits roll.