Russian

Sam's first Thursday at the reading club near the Arbat: welcome, tell us about yourself, an American and a piano tuner, what will you read us, Chekhov is a doctor and a writer, and brevity is the sister of talent, here one reads aloud and slowly, next Thursday then.

Galina Petrovna rehearses Sam at the kitchen table before he tells Fat and Thin: from the beginning and slower, two friends met at the station, first the background and then what happened, they hugged and kissed three times, he found out, went pale, and it was the polite you from then on.

Fat and Thin at the reading club: tell it first as to a friend, a man is standing at the station and sees a friend, the thin one says Misha and the fat one says Porfiry, then only your excellency, now read us the end, it's not the place that makes the man but the man the place.

Dima's camera test at the old upright in Sokolniki: look at me and not at the camera, it was like this, about seven years ago Dima wrote come, say it again because the camera liked it, I flew in with three words of Russian, the piano sounded like a barrel, I worked a couple of hours, cut, the sound is good and the light is bad, tomorrow I tune and you film.

A Horse's Name at the reading club: tonight a funny story and keep the end for the end, a general has toothache and one man cures teeth by telegram, but the surname is forgotten and only something horsey remains, the whole house guesses all evening, the general calls the doctor, the doctor pulls the tooth, and the steward goes: Ovsov, from oats.

The Chameleon at the reading club: whose dog is it and that's the whole story, a dog bit a goldsmith and a policeman comes, kill it, but someone says the dog is supposedly the general's, then the goldsmith is to blame and supposedly teased it himself, he changes about five times, and at the end the dog is supposedly the general's brother's.

The Malefactor at the reading club, with Lena in the audience: I came to hear you and is it a sad one, sad and funny, a peasant in court for a nut, tell it Sam since you can, the judge asks why and he says for a sinker because without a sinker you can't catch anything, but a train could, the nut's a small one and we don't take them all, and he never understood a thing.

A Little Joke, read to Katya at home: why that one with the sled, because of the wind, he and Nadenka go down a hill on a sled, going down he whispers I love you Nadenka, at the bottom she doesn't know whether it was him or the wind and asks to go again all winter, he never told her, and Sam said it at the dacha, standing, with no wind.

The Man in a Case at the reading club: this one is longer so give us the man and not the plot, a teacher lived in a case with galoshes and an umbrella and his collar up, his famous words were in case something should come of it, he was afraid of everything and most of all that the town might talk, he fell down the stairs, a girl laughed, he died, and in the coffin he smiled.

Dima films at the reading club, the library's old piano and Vanka: the piano by the window and how old it is, older than me and tuned by Sam, say for the camera what you read, a boy sent to a shoemaker writes to his grandfather, a letter written at night with to grandfather in the village on the envelope, will it arrive, never, no name and no village, the saddest story.

Baba Valya puts Sam at the pancake pan: the pan's still cold, now pour, it tore, the first pancake is a lump, hurry and people will laugh, who is that you, anyone, no effort no little fish from the pond, now flip it, the third one's round.

May at the dacha with Uncle Vova and Baba Valya: the fence is down and the roof leaks, where to start, eyes fear but hands do, and the car, we'll push it, fear wolves and you don't go into the forest, there's no you in that one, a proverb needs nobody, get the sleigh ready in summer, proverbs work.

Bedtime at the dacha, Masha in her cot: not Chekhov, a tale, grandpa planted a little turnip and it grew big, in a tale grandpa gets the little ending, he pulls and can't pull it out, everyone in order, grandma holds grandpa, the granddaughter holds grandma, the mouse holds the cat, out came the turnip, and Masha is asleep.

Dawn on the lake with Uncle Vova: quiet, there was a pike here, this big, last year it was this big, a whole three kilos, a whole hour, and in the end, the line broke only a metre from the boat, now that's a story, told a thousand times and never once a lie, a fisherman sees a fisherman from afar, two small ones that will be pike by summer.

Uncle Vova's old car in the grass: thirty years together, how many of those did it start, it used to be you'd come out in the morning and it won't start, open the bonnet, hit it once and off you go, once it didn't start at all, he missed the train and met his wife on the platform, no luck but bad luck helped, measure seven times, cut once.

Baba Valya tells the axe porridge over the stove and Sam tells it back: a soldier walking home asks for food, neither bread nor salt, he'll cook porridge from an axe, tastes it, just needs salt, she brings salt, groats and butter, they eat, and the axe, not done yet, he'll finish it on the road, a cheat or a cook, both, like every guest.

Kolobok for Masha, with Baba Valya chiming in: this one she knows from her grandmother, begin, grandma baked a kolobok and put it on the window, it rolled off and rolled along the path, go on, a hare comes towards him, I'll eat you, I left grandma and I'll get away from you too, the wolf and the bear the same, and the fox, sit on my nose and sing again, he sat, and she ate him, the end, and Masha claps.

Eleven at a table for eight at the dacha: move up, crowded but nobody's offended, let Sam tell the one about minus twenty, do tell, the one with the tuning fork, his first January at minus twenty-two, he takes the fork out in the yard and it sticks to his lip, come on, the ending, he rings the bell with a fork on his lip, and she says come in, the piano's warmer than you.

The banya at the dacha with Uncle Vova: the stove's ready, steam, twigs, then the lake, last time Sam nearly fell, steam doesn't break bones, sit lower, he was about to get out when more water hit the stones, that's the point, now the lake, he very nearly turned back but jumped, nearly jumped and you've got a story, enjoy the steam, the next story's yours.

Baba Valya on camera, Dima filming, Sam asking: look at Sam, not at me, when and where from did you get the piano, about fifty years ago, from a neighbour, paid off within a year, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but it wasn't a gift, who carried it to the fifth floor, four men and she behind them with the pies, since then it's been here, small but precious, cut, better than any film.

In the last workshop of the old Moscow piano factory, Pavel Sergeyevich tells the camera his story: at seventeen they put me on soundboards, they say ten thousand a year, then they closed the factory, pianos are brought here from all over Moscow, and the work fears the master.

Dima films at the music school where Galina Petrovna taught: she said that nobody wanted the job, you said that the American would manage, she asked whether you were scared, I said I had already tuned one, the children asked whether I was a real American, and now you're our tuner.

A piano from a village club in Sam's workshop off Chistye Prudy, Katya with lunch and Dima with the camera: it looks as if it stood in the rain, it sounds like a barrel, in a month it will sing like a nightingale, every piano is like a patient, now you talk like a doctor, I'm married to one.

Igor cuts the sound of the documentary at the studio: forty minutes of pianos and where's the music, it's a film, not a concert, a gun on the wall has to fire, so the piano has to play at the end, it can't not play, one can't help smiling, cut it that way.

Writing the voice-over at Dima's kitchen table: the film needs a voice, first a piano, then a school, then the children, too many thens, after that a factory that they closed, at last a hall, in a word the man who listens, that's the title, repetition is the mother of learning.

Masha and the Bear at bedtime: now it's Masha's turn, Masha went for mushrooms and got lost, she baked pies and climbed into the basket, carry it to grandma and don't open it, don't sit on the stump, don't eat the pie, don't drop the basket is the other kind, and our Masha is asleep.

Sam's own story at the reading club: tonight no Chekhov, a fifth floor with no lift and a grand piano, six movers, no sooner had they got it up than a shout from above, wrong entrance, no sooner had they brought it down than the neighbour came out, up again, lovely, can you tune it, a lift would have ruined that story.

The screening of The Man Who Listens at the reading club: before the film a few words, I want to say a few words, forty minutes of silence is a first, thank you to all who let the camera in, especially to one grandmother who isn't here, she said she'd watch when they bring it, better to see once than to hear a hundred times, lights off.

After the screening, Vera Nikolayevna from the Conservatory: I'm from the Conservatory and I liked the children, those are my students, I'd like to propose the Small Hall in spring, if they played there the parents would fall over, could you prepare a programme, he could and I'd film it, one condition, you play yourself, I'd rather tune it, but for the children, yes.

The kitchen table at home, the film watched twice: I look old in it but the piano looks good, once upon a time there was a tuner and he read Chekhov, and learned to make pancakes, and his friend made a film, and a professor asked for a concert, and that's the end of the tale, good for those who listened, the end crowns the work, that's the whole story.