Zigzag of Success

In a modest provincial photo studio, everyday worries — missed quotas, unrequited hopes, and creative frustrations — define the lives of its employees, until an impulsive act turns their world upside down. Photographer Vladimir Oreshnikov “borrows” twenty rubles from the office mutual aid fund to buy a lottery bond and unexpectedly wins a fortune. But what seems like his personal stroke of luck quickly spirals into a moral and comedic dilemma: since the money wasn’t his, does the prize belong to him or to the entire team? As tensions rise, loyalties shift, and everyone argues over justice and fairness, the studio finds itself facing a very Soviet kind of controversy — one that demands an answer before the New Year dawns.

The film opens with an animated sequence created by noted Soviet animator Eduard Nazarov, who later became known for his work in auteur animation.

Although presented as a light New Year’s workplace comedy, the film satirises Soviet-era collective culture: the comedy arises from a conflict between individual ambition and communal ownership of resources (the lottery win from a workers’ fund).

The lottery win in the film (10,000 rubles) reflects the everyday reality of Soviet citizens who could participate in state-lotteries and savings bonds — but the film uses it to explore moral and social dilemmas rather than simply wish-fulfilment.

Many critics note that this film represents a transition in Ryazanov’s style where satire becomes more direct, using everyday situations and office politics to comment on larger societal issues, a pattern he would continue in his later work.