Coronavirus

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

Hello, my dears. Oh, thank you, dear. What would we do without you?! How much do I owe you?

VOLUNTEER GIRL

No, no. We are volunteers, you know, and we do it just from the heart.

GRANDMOTHER YAROSLAVA

But you are wasting your time? And every work must be paid.

VOLUNTEER BOY

Don't worry. You are old and can't move around the city. And it is difficult for us to sit in isolation, because we are young. So they offered their services as volunteers.

ДЕВУШКА ВОЛОНТЕР

Especially since you, as a pensioner, are at risk. And people like you need to be helped first.

YAROSLAVA'S GRANDMOTHER

Well, thank you, dear, for your concern… Is there anyone out there?

YAROSLAVA'S BOYFRIEND

Yes, of course, you're allowed to go to the store… There are a lot of homeless people. No one bothers them at all. They live in their own element.

YAROSLAVA'S GIRLFRIEND

The police catch and fine those who walk.

BABUSHKA YAROSLAVA

Is it really so serious?

GIRL VOLUNTEER

Well, the fines were introduced recently. Not everyone can stay in their apartment for so long. That's why they find ways to break out of their confinement. The main thing is to maintain social distancing and wear masks.

BOY VOLUNTEER

For example, we deliver essential goods to single pensioners…

GIRL VOLUNTEER

And the payment is freedom of movement, and live communication with you.

GRANDMOTHER YAROSLAVA

And when will this quarantine end?

GIRL VOLUNTEER

As soon as they find a vaccine for the coronavirus…

GUY VOLUNTEER

You will forgive us Irada Pantelemonovna, but we are still waiting.

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

Yes, yes, thank you very much… Run. I will take it myself…

The volunteers leave in the elevator, and Father Yaroslav takes all the food in the corridor. The door closes.

Yaroslav lies on his bed and starts to doze off, then in his sleep he turns over on the bed and puts his hand in the air on a chair standing next to the bed. There is a signal of an incoming message. Yaroslav sits down at the computer and reads the homework sent. He sees that he also received a message from his friend Vasilis. Yaroslav opens the letter.

VASILIS (SUBTITRE)

Hi, Yarik. Check out the proofs… The whole school is going to a rally tomorrow against the quarantine – it's a violation of our human rights, which the fucking government has come up with to drive the people like cattle to their apartments. So that everyone sits and doesn't talk. And also, Zet says that they give you money…

YAROSLAV (SUBTITRE)

And do you believe that they will give you money?

Yaroslav sends his message. Vasilis responds.

VASILIS(SUBTITRE)

Well, if they don't pay, we'll stream the party… And we'll get a lot of likes again.

YAROSLAV (SUBTITRE)

Aren't you afraid of getting in trouble with your parents?

VASILIS(SUBTITRE)

What, did you chicken out?

YAROSLAV(SUBTITRE)

Yeah, I didn't shit my pants. First of all, how are we going to get out of here?

VASILY(SUBTITRE)

Yeah, there are a lot of options. Like, taking out the trash or going to the store… So, I'll be waiting for you outside. Just let me know when you're ready.

In the morning, Yaroslav comes to the kitchen after breakfast and looks at the trash can. It's half empty. He takes it and loosens the contents. It's almost full.

YAROSLAV

Ma, Pa, Ba, I'm going to throw away the trash.

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER (behind the scenes)

What, is it full already?

YAROSLAV

Almost and it starts to stink.

YAROSLAV'S FATHER (behind the scenes)

Aren't you lying?

YAROSLAV

Why would I be?

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER (behind the scenes)

What are you constantly biting the kid for? Just don't forget the mask.

YAROSLAV

Ba, why do I need a mask in the entrance? I'm only going to the trash and back…

Yaroslav goes out to the entrance.

Yaroslav leaves the apartment, approaches and calls the elevator. Waiting nervously for it. The elevator comes and the doors open. Yaroslav gets into the elevator.

Yaroslav takes out his smartphone and makes a call on the messenger to Vasilis. He responds in kind.

Yaroslav gets out of the elevator, hides the bucket behind the elevator at the garbage disposal and runs out into the street.

Yaroslav runs out of the entrance and almost runs over the arrived doctors, in anti-bacterial suits of PPE.

FELSHER

Be careful, young man. And why are you without a mask?

Yaroslav stops and looks at them in fright. The nurse takes a medical mask out of her pocket and gives it to Yaroslav. Yaroslav takes it and puts it on. Vasilis comes up from behind and pokes Yaroslav. Yaroslav flinches in surprise.

VASILIS

Why are you twitching? Oh! It looks like a cow's saddle on you…

Yaroslav tears the mask off his face and throws it away.

YAROSLAV

Yeah, well, let the batans wear…

VASILY

Well, all, time, we're late.

YAROSLAV

Where, on vpisku?

VASILY

No. For babosami. Shch'a all the cabbage will give away while you chukhsya…

And they run from the yard.

CHAPTER 5

There are a lot of people on the square. Most of them are without masks and are of school age. At the entrance to the square, there are volunteers distributing medical masks. Yaroslav and Vasilis ignore them and walk into the crowd without masks. A man stops them and gives them each five hundred rubles.

YAROSLAV

What for?

MAN

It's a thank-you, buy yourself a belyash with soda… Or something else?!

Yaroslav and Vasilis walk deeper into the crowd.

VASILIS

This is, apparently, the dough for participation in the party.

YAROSLAV

Something this paladin kropal gave, probably squeezed himself half.

VASILIS

Well, can you presanut him?!

YAROSLAV

Yeah, in such a crowd, where will you find him now? Here you have to slomitsya… What are you not streaming?

An elderly man comes out to the podium with a megaphone and begins to humiliate the current government. Police units with transparent shields appear and immediately block the entrance to the administration building.

GUY

(to Yaroslav)

Here, take the bag of eggs…

YAROSLAV

Why?

GUY

You'll throw it at the cops…

VASILIS

What did he give you, show me?

YAROSLAV

He says, "When they start throwing, you should throw too."

VASILIS

Give it to me.

YAROSLAV

You shoot. I'll throw it myself… Take a close-up of me from below…

VASILIS

As you say, boss.

From the crowd, chicken eggs and tomatoes begin to fly. Vasilis and Yaroslav also throw eggs at the police barrier. Unexpectedly, they are replaced by stones. In response, the police begin to push the crowd, and some provocateurs engage in aggressive dialogues with employees. Skirmishes between protesters and police officers begin. A shot is heard, a police officer falls to the asphalt and writhes in pain. A police armored personnel carrier arrives and begins firing tear gas grenades. The crowd begins to disperse. The police special forces begin a harsh detention of the protesters. Yaroslav and Vasilis run away from the square home.

YAROSLAV

Did you film how I hit the police officer in the helmet with an egg?

VASILY

Yeah… Let's get out of here, the cops are starting to pack up…

YAROSLAV

There was a TV station here.

VASILY

I saw it, I hope my parents won't see us on the idiot box…

Yaroslav comes home with an empty trash can. He puts it by the door and goes into the living room. His father and grandmother are watching TV. His mother is cooking in the kitchen. Yaroslav sits down in a chair, takes out his smartphone, and starts looking at it.

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER (behind the scenes)

You're here?! Did you go to China to take out the trash?

YAROSLAV

No, I just met Vasilisa, and we had a little chat…

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER (behind the scenes)

He met someone. Who declared the quarantine?

YAROSLAV

The suckers…

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER (behind the scenes)

Of course…

YAROSLAV

The stables…

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

Is that how you answer your mother, you little shit?

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

What are you really attached to the boy? He's growing, and you're infringing on him…

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER (behind the scenes)

You'll infringe on him… Put the bucket down and go eat… Just don't forget to wash your hands…

YAROSLAV

Okay.

Yaroslav sneezes. A close-up shows a coronavirus molecule that comes out of Yaroslav's nostril and goes into Yaroslav's grandmother's nostril.

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

And wipe your hands with antiseptic… It's on the shelf…

Father, mother, and grandmother are sitting in the living room watching the TV news.

DIRECTION

This morning, an unauthorized rally was held in the central square against the government's quarantine self-isolation, and the first coronavirus patients have started arriving at hospitals…

Grandmother gets up and goes to her bedroom.

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER

Mom, where are you going?

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

I'm feeling hot and tired, so I'm going to take an aspirin and lie down…

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER

Will the TV show start? Should I call you?

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

I don't know, if I don't fall asleep, then call…

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER

Well, I'll record it then. Tomorrow you'll see.

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

Where's Yarik?

Yaroslav is sitting at the computer. On the screen the face of Vasilis on video communication.

VASILIS

Well, what you ancestors, put in?

YAROSLAV

No, it was just a decel.

VASILY

And my parents arrested me…

Suddenly, YAROSLAV's angry father enters and takes the computer's power cord.

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

I told you to stop hanging out with that puppy, didn't I?

YAROSLAV

What are you doing? Give me back the cord… I haven't finished my homework yet…

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

Tomorrow morning you check, and until lunch. And after until the morning I will take the cord…

YAROSLAV

And what now I have, mother took the smart, you deprived of the computer, ripnutsya, or what?

FATHER YAROSLAV

Listen, you can speak in normal language, and not with your computer nonsense?.. That's what you said now, translate?

YAROSLAV

Yes passed…

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

Passed?!. Don't consider your parents as people at all, puppy…

CHAPTER 6

In the morning, father, mother and Yaroslav sit down at the breakfast table.

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER

Yaroslav, my son, call your grandmother.

Yaroslav gets up and leaves the kitchen.

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

Yes, it's strange, usually your mother is already at the stove, but Sednya? Maybe I'm tired, every day… There used to be people, not like you, always whining and whining…

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER

Listen, would you shut up, huh?

Yaroslav goes to his grandmother's room and sees her lying under the covers coughing.

YAROSLAV

Ba, come, ma is calling for food…

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

Oh, grandson, I don't feel so good…

Yaroslav's mother comes in.

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

Don't come too close, I must have gone out on the balcony after taking a shower to hang up my laundry, and I got a cold…

YAROSLAVA'S MOTHER

Mom, what's wrong? You're not yourself, you're burning up like a stove, and you're coughing suspiciously. Maybe we should call an ambulance.

YAROSLAVA'S GRANDMOTHER

No, don't worry, daughter. I've always managed to get through flu season, and I'll rest until lunch and everything will be fine…

YAROSLAV'S MOTHER

Would you like some tea with raspberry jam, or some milk with honey?

YAROSLAV'S GRANDMOTHER

Some milk with honey…

YAROSLAV is sitting in his room, doing his homework on the computer. He hears a commotion in the hallway. He looks out of the room and sees doctors wearing PPE (personal protective equipment), including a protective suit, a respirator, goggles, two pairs of gloves, and shoe covers, entering YAROSLAV's grandmother's room with a stretcher.

Doctors in PPE put on Yaroslav's grandmother a mask with manual air supply and takes a thermometer from her mouth.

DOCTOR MAN

Symptoms are similar to coronavirus, difficulty breathing, urgently hospitalize the grandmother in intensive care under NIVL. And call a second ambulance. Parents have a suspicious temperature.

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

What, is it that serious? I felt like a cheerful guy yesterday. Now there's just some kind of fatigue.

DOCTOR WOMAN

You had contact with the grandmother… In the reception you will take an express test… But by the symptoms?!. You need a two-week quarantine… You, in addition to the son, have a very high fever and dry cough. So quickly collect documents and things of first necessity.

MOTHER YAROSLAV

And what about the son? He is not 14 years old?!

DOCTOR WOMAN

I've called a social worker, and he'll be placed in an orphanage while you're in isolation.

YAROSLAV'S FATHER

Can't we take him with us?

DOCTOR MAN

No, his temperature is normal. He could infect you.