David Duchovny walks into a bar…

As he orders a drink, he ponders: what would have happened, if his ancestors did not move to the US... what would his life be like if he was born in Russia?

DAVID DUCHOVNY, a celebrity actor walks up to the scenic viewpoint in the USA and orders a glass of beer.

As he looks into the skyline and waits for his glass he contemplates the different ways life could have turned out.

DAVID

This is the country where I was born and raised.

But there is another country, where I got my family name from.

And sometimes I wonder, what if things turned out differently.

In his mind, DAVID starts to create another world, where his ancestors never moved to the US. A world where his character and beliefs are developing in Russia.

An old Russian yearbook opens on a table.

Among old black and white pictures of the Moscow Cinematography University graduates we zoom into one – a young D. Duchovny written in Cyrrilic.

DAVID

What if I were Russian?

An orchestra arrangement of A STAR NAMED THE SUN of the band KINO starts playing in the background.

Intercuts of old photos portraying DAVID in canonic Russian circumstances.

Skiing in the winter forest.

Being the best man in a Russian wedding.

Getting out an ice hole in the lake after a dive.

And going even further, we see DAVID as a cosmonaut, prepared to launch into space.

Cut to Soviet rocket launching from the pad.

Cut to Space control room, suddenly, DAVID appears on the main screen of the control room as a Cosmonaut in space.

DAVID

Could I still be among the stars?

Cut to DAVID standing on the Bolshoy theatre stage as a balletmeister.

He is surrounded by a troupe of ballerinas warming up.

DAVID approaches one and gently touches her, guiding her movements.

DAVID

How would I surround myself with beauty?

Cut to DAVID walking through a hallway at Russian film studio Mosfilm.

DAVID

What role would I play?

He stops near a poster on the wall for the movie about the Tzar Peter the Great

Cut to DAVID, now Russian actor, walking into a casting room where an assistant hands him the role.

He goes through the casting introduction.

DAVID

David Duchovny, professional actor in theatre and cinema, 40 years old.

Cut to DAVID, dressed as Danila Bogrov from the Russian cult film “Brat” (dir. Balabanov) reciting into the casting-camera the lines of a Russian children’s poem “Motherland” from the film.

Once I found out that I have a huge family.

Cut to a hockey-team locker room. A russian team is preparing to hit the ice for an important game.

We pan to see a hockey jersey with DUCHOVNY written on its back. One PLAYER pats him on the shoulder.

PLAYER

Heads up! Don’t sleep.

David smiles to his pal. He’s missing one tooth, like one of the Russian hockey legends.

Cut to montage of David walking as a traveller down different paths in scenic nature.

In his thoughts, DAVID asks himself.

What path would I choose?

And being Russian, he takes another approach to the question.

Cut to ice-breaker ship plowing through the Arctic.

DAVID

Or would I make my own path?

Cut to a picture of DAVID raising his flag on the North Pole.

From the icy frontiers DAVID’S thoughts take him running out of the banya, the steamy hot Russian sauna. He runs out of it and immediately jumps into a cold river with his friends.

Cut to a Russian jeep crossing a shallow river.

DAVID is riding shotgun with his pals. The speakers in the car are playing an iconic perestroika song about great changes. David and his friends are singing along. The artist is MASHINA VREMENI (TIME MACHINE), song title is POVOROT (THE TURN)

DAVID contemplates the song

What song would turn my life around?

Cut to David as the bass player of the MASHINA VREMENI band, singing the song on the TV-broadcast.

Cut to a rooftoop overlooking Moscow. Looking at a beautiful vista, like in the beginning of the story in the USA, DAVID is surrounded by friends at a party.

DAVID

And being Russian, if I had something important to say, how would I do it?

Our hero turns to the friends around him and reads the full children’s poem “Motherland”, that all Russians learn in school, and that he started in the casting room.

DAVID

Once I found out that

I have got a huge family:

The winding path, the forest,

The grass blade in the field,

The river,

The blue sky above,

All of this I call my home.

We see a montage of Russian David Duchovny reading the poem in all of his different Russian identities.

Cut back to DAVID in the US on the rooftop, where the story began.

WAITER brings DAVID his glass of Sibirskaya Corona beer.

And I found out that being Russian I’d have many things to be proud of

He raises the glass towards the camera.

Za vas!

(For you)

You have something to be proud of