A man, who becomes mistaken for his brother who was immigrating to Israel from USSR, finds himself caught up in the middle of a bureaucratic mess when he realizes that if he tells the truth about who he is, he will go to jail and his brother's family will never be allowed to leave the USSR. He therefore assumes his brother's identity to get to Israel hoping his distant uncle living there will help him out. The plan backfires, however, when he realizes that the uncle is a paranoid lunatic thinking the KGB is out to get him. He becomes stranded in Israel with no friends, no money, and no passport, trying to figure out a way to get back home.
Cast and Crew
Gérard Darmon
Merab Papashvili/Yasha Papashvili
Natalya Gundareva
Inga
Oleg Yankovskiy
Borya - nicknamed «Paris»
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
Semyon Klain - «Senya»
Evgeni Leonov
Embassy employee in Austria
Mamuka Kikaleishvili
Moisha Sepiashvili
Leonid Yarmolnik
Borya's Israeli partner
Levan Pilpani
Vakhtang Papashvili - father
Ya'ackov Ben-Sira
Bernstein - Inga's uncle
Nina Ter-Osipyan
Inga's aunt
Sharon Hacohen
Jane - american journalist
Nutsa Koguashvili
Kim Sullivan
Gamlet - Tengiz's companion from Murumbia
Christian Fellat
Tengiz
Igor Kvasha
chief rabbi of the Moscow synagogue
Rocky Albert Nirschl
academician Sesershvili
Aleksandr Berda
Vasiliy Ermolenko
Claude Aviram
waiter at the restaurant
Amiran Amiranashvili
Suren, the taxi driver
N. Anokhina
Mzia Atanelov
arab girl in a car with Borya
Aleksandr Brodskiy
Shmuel Wolf
Levan Gabriadze
Merab Papashvili's colleague
Gelena Kirik
Leri Gaprindashvili
militiaman
Vladimir Gusev
Ivan Petrovich Fyodorov
Ts. Dadiani
Moris Janashvili
guest at the wedding
Nino Koberidze
conductor on the train
Darejan Jojua
Taxi dispatcher
Veronika Izotova
flight attendant
Smadar Kilchinsky
Sasha Klein
T. Kipiani
L. Kublashvili
Sh. Koen
B. Koen
Yuriy Kushneryov
doorman in a Moscow hotel restaurant
Georgiy Kupriyanov
Abesalom Loria
trainmaster
Guram Lortkipanidze
Yasha's neighbor
Ruslan Mikaberidze
Mustafa is Turkish
L. Mikaeli
A. Mirzani
L. Nergul
Dato Papuashvili
KGB officer
Igor Piliev
Israel Rubinchik
Boris Smorchkov
Irina Fandera
Rene Khobua
(credit only)
Galina Churilina
lunch lady
A. Shazar
Constantin Alexandrov
waiter (uncredited)
Georgiy Daneliya
arab with a donkey (uncredited)
Vladimir Korovkin
airplane pilot (uncredited)
Evgeniy Kuleshov
man at the airport (uncredited)
Roman Madyanov
person passing through customs control (uncredited)