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course work of Filipp Yarin
for animation director, 2nd semester
(class of V.N. Zuykov and A.P. Zyablikova)

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It seems that the area of state defence
has suffered some serious lapses.

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Until today we never thought about it -
everyone just minded their own affairs.

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However, recent events
are becoming a bit alarming.

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An Old Sheet of Paper

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I'm seeing crowds of armed people
filling all the neighboring alleys.

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But these are not our soldiers.

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They look like the nomads
of the far north.

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In some unfathomable way,
they've reached the capital.

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However it be, they are here, and their
number grows with each passing day.

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As is their wont,

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they've set up camp
right beneath the open sky.

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The sight of residential houses
repulses them.

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They've turned what was once a quiet,
clean square into a pen for horses.

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Our way of life, our customs, are as
unfathomable to them as they are irrelevant.

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For this reason, they'll neither
give nor receive any signs.

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You can break your jaw, twist your arm out
of its socket; they still won't understand you

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nor will they want to.

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My own resources have
also considerably diminished.

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But the urge to complain disappears when
one considers the lot of our butcher

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As soon as he delivers his product,

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it immediately disappears
and is devoured by the nomads.

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Our butcher is so frightened that he
does not stop delivering the meat.

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We're all sorry for him, and we've pooled
money to at least keep his head above water

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If the butcher doesn't give them meat,
who knows what else they'll turn to?

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But even now, with them receiving
meat every day,

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nobody knows what idea they'll
get into their heads next.

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Not long ago, the butcher decided
to save himself some labour,

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and brought a bull to the square alive
instead of butchering him.

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He never dared try that again.

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I spent a whole hour lying on the floor
in the back room of my workshop,

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having covered myself with pillows,
clothes and blankets,

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so I wouldn't hear the cries of that beast.

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Jumping on it from all sides, the nomads
tore the living meat from it with their teeth.

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It had long been quiet when I finally
dared to look outside.

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Exhausted, they sprawled around the
remains of the bull

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like drunks around a barrel of wine.

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It was just then,
unless my eyes deceived me,

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that in one of the palace's windows
appeared our Emperor.

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He stood before the window
with bowed head,

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and observed what was happening
in front of his palace.

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"How will this all end?"
we ask each other.

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How much longer must
we bear this torment?

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The Imperial palace has attracted
the nomads to itself,

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but it does not know how
to make them go away.

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The gates are always closed.

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The guard that once regularly
patrolled the streets

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now prefers to stay behind
the barred windows.

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They've delegated the defence
of the fatherland to us,

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craftsmen and shopkeepers

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but this task is beyond our power.

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Nor did we ever claim that
we could carry it out.

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What has happened is a mistake
from which we are dying.

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screenwriter, director, animator
Filipp Yarin

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music Lyudmila Isayeva,
Anna Podduyeva, Ilya Kuznetsov

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sound
Pavel Morozov

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instructors
V.N. Zuykov, A.P. Zyablikova, V.A. Fomina,
V.P. Kolesnikova, N.P. Stepantseva

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production director
Ye.P. Turtanova

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VGIK 2010
subtitles by Niffiwan