One day his boss, Miron, informs Aist of the death of his wife Tanya and demands his help disposing of the body without an autopsy.

Taking the birds and Tanya's naked body with them, the two men travel to Gorbatov, the site of her honeymoon and the smallest town in Russia, in order to perform cremation rites on the banks of the Oka River.

Afterwards, while traversing the Kineshma Bridge, they are caused to crash into "the great Meryan river" (The Volga: there to drown) when the Buntings get loose in the car to peck at their eyes.

[4] The official Rossiyskaya Gazeta compared the film to Tarkovsky's best work as a powerful evocation of pre-Christian roots of rural Russia.

[6] Among American critics, Jim Hoberman wrote: "Dour yet affirmative, this laconic, deliberately paced, beautifully shot movie seeks the archaic in the ordinary".

[8] Roger Ebert expressed the opinion that the film "in only 75 perfect minutes achieves the profundity of an epic", also mentioning that "not often have I been more deeply touched".