A Russian plane makes an emergency landing at an airport in the middle of the steppes. Shortly after, one of the passengers, carrying a valuable cargo in his cabin bag, is found dead.

Asleep Passenger

The film’s protagonist, Ahmet, was tending sheep high in the mountains when a merciless mudflow destroyed his house, taking with it all his family and friends. And Ahmet leaves his home, for the first time in his 30-year-long life, for faraway Moscow in search of his only surviving cousin. On his way he meets different people… The train conductor takes him under her wardship, instructing him about life in the city of which he has no idea whatsoever. Though he’s lost his bearing in this world, Ahmet is charging people who more fortunate than himself with his kindness and joi de vivre. The shooting took place in Alagir Canyon, next to Karmadon Canyon where Sergey Bodrov’s production group had perished. Yaropolk Lapshin had completed shooting two days before the Karmadon tragedy.