For Family Reasons (1977)

По семейным обстоятельствам

A young couple and their baby try to swap flats to escape a crowded family home, and Moscow's housing market fights back.

⚠ NO OFFICIAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES — MACHINE TRANSLATION ONLY

Mosfilm has not added English subtitles to this film. You can still follow it with YouTube automatic translation: start the video, click ⚙ Settings → Subtitles/CC → Auto-translate → English.

Please note: this translation is made by a machine in real time, not by us or by Mosfilm. It is often clumsy and sometimes wrong. We list this film because it is too famous to leave out. All films without this warning have proper, human-made English subtitles.

Plays from Mosfilm's official YouTube channel. Turn on Auto-translate as shown above; use the CC and ⚙ buttons in the player to change them. Open on YouTube ↗

Year
1977
Director
Alexei Korenev
Starring
Galina Polskikh, Yevgenia Khanaeva, Yevgeny Steblov, Marina Dyuzheva, Yevgeny Yevstigneyev, Anatoly Papanov
Genre
Comedy, Family
Running time
2 h 09 min · 2 parts
Based on
The play by Valentin Azernikov
Language
Russian · no official English subtitles (YouTube machine translation only)
Studio
Mosfilm

About the film

A newly married young couple share a flat with the wife's mother and the new baby. Everyone wants their own space, so they try to exchange their apartment for two smaller ones.

The search brings them a parade of strange characters, crafty agents and impossible deals, while the grandmother fights to keep her own life and career.

A gentle family comedy from the director of The Big Break, with a cast of famous comic actors. Part one has proper English subtitles on YouTube.

Did you know?

  • Part one of the film has official English subtitles; part two does not.
  • Director Alexei Korenev also made The Big Break.
  • Apartment exchanges were the usual way to move home in the USSR, where flats could not simply be bought or sold.

If you liked For Family Reasons