Europe, 1709. Russia and Sweden are at war. Two French duelists are exiled by King Louis XIV of France: one to the side of Czar Peter the Great of Russia, the other to the side of King Charles XII of Sweden. Although separated by war and allegiance, fate has not finished with them.
Based on the novel by Booker Prize Winner Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Funeral Party is set in August 1991. In a sweltering New York City apartment, a group of Russian émigrés gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world. Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CNN?
The student, Rifle, has managed to seduce his professor's wife, Bomber, an average working guy, has bought a factory and Bullet, the casino lover, is hiding from creditors. They all share a common path and conscription. In the army they teach you that everything must be smart and in order - cockades, straps and all, otherwise you're not fit to call yourself a person, you're a maggot. For a real man, there's no better place than the army.
The Italians, conquered by the Tatar singer's skill, offer him a contract. By the will of circumstances, Renat gets first to Yalta and only then on the yacht of a drug dealer to Italy. Here the hero finds himself in prison, meets an Italian beauty and is carried away in a hot air balloon...
Cute Roman, who enjoys an enviable interest in the female, has an obsessive dream in which a beautiful girl is to him. Roman's life has turned into an unimaginable nightmare, which he sincerely loving man helps to get rid of.
In an abandoned apartment there are former spouses. Barricaded, the husband, thus, trying to escape from the criminals who hunt for compromising photos. But the ex-wife is there not by chance — she is the mistress of one of the kidnappers. But with an unusual date, the former feelings take over, the lovers decide to deceive the bandits and go on the run.