Die Diva

Ten stories about love: the love of a lifetime, and lesser loves; love that was very nearly missed, unattainable love, everyday and exceptional love. Trofimow was fifteen when he saw her portrait, and he spends the next thirty years waiting for the day when he will meet the woman of his dreams in person. For her sake he learns her mother tonge, Italian, and for her sake he becomes a famous journalist since only a top journalist would be sent to Italy to make a reportage on The Divas. But when she appears in the flesh at a film festival in Moscow, nothing happens as he has planned. Between heaven and Earth is where Natascha, who is terrified of flying, finds herself when she is sitting next to a young basket ball player on a night flight to Baku. Suddenly, small tongues of flame appear along the wings. Natascha sees her last moments approaching and seeks comfort in the arms of the young man who - like the other passengers - is dozing peacefully in his seat. The flames turn out to be blinking warning lamps, as the basket ball player explains to Natascha. And, high above the clouds, a conversation springs up which neither of them would ever have dreamed of having on the ground. In A long day a journalist called Veronika gets to know and love the surgeon Jegorow. But the acquaintanceship begins badly because Veronika is pretending that she has been assigned to write a reportage about the famous doctor whereas in reality she has manipulated the meeting because she wants him to take her sick child as a patient. When Jegorow realises this he is disappointed and wants to terminate the relationship: how can he ever believe that Veronika's feelings for him are genuine?