There Lived Kozyavin

Kozyavin's superior assigns him to locate Sidorov and expects results. He questions his colleagues to gather clues before setting off. Determined to remain on a straight path, he leaves the office to begin his search.

His search leads him along a straight line that passes through a sewer and into a construction site. He arrives at a wall broken by a wrecking ball and pushes forward, trying to speak to the foreman. The noise and confusion of the site render his words unintelligible, stalling his progress.

The foreman stops all work in response to Kozyavin's questions and bellows at him. Undeterred, Kozyavin asks again whether anyone has seen Sidorov. The foreman's tirade fails to derail his mission as he continues his straight-line trek.

Kozyavin enters a fair and notices acrobats performing on a pole, disrupting their routine as he passes. He questions the performers, but they offer no information about Sidorov. The encounter highlights the odd, dreamlike world he wanders through.

At the fair, a violinist plays a composition that becomes increasingly erratic as Kozyavin persists with his questions. He nudges the musician and takes the violin bow, revealing his single-minded determination. The music and his intrusion underline the surreal tone of the journey.

On surreal stairs, Kozyavin moves into a commission building. The stairs and corridors bend in impossible ways, underscoring the film's dreamlike logic. He presses on with his search, indifferent to the strange surroundings.

Inside a dim gallery of paintings and antiques, Kozyavin sparks a light and encounters two people who resemble thieves. He remains oblivious to the ongoing burglary taking place around him, focused only on finding Sidorov. The thieves direct him toward the exit, offering a misguided but helpful clue.

He enters a ground-level pipeline; its curves appear unrealistically smooth as he manipulates the world around him. He jumps from the pipeline to the dry veld beyond, continuing his straight march. He remains stubbornly fixated on his target, no matter the strange terrain.

From the veld he climbs a mountain, then reaches a desert where a giant prehistoric skeleton lies in wait. He walks along the backbone like a staircase and even destroys part of the skeleton in his determination. A paleontologist appears, but he offers no answer about Sidorov, and Kozyavin merely moves on.

A body of stagnant water does not deter him from swimming toward Antarctica. He traverses oceans and ice in a single-minded attempt to complete his straight-line journey. The dreamlike voyage continues even as it grows more unreal.

Having circumnavigated the planet in a straight line, Kozyavin finally arrives back at his office. He has not found Sidorov, but his mission ends with a shrug. He returns to his desk to shuffle paperwork as if nothing had happened.

Kozyavin reports to his superior with a shrug and accepts the futility of the search. He resumes his routine at the desk, stacking and filing paperwork. The world has completed a full circle, yet Sidorov remains unseen.