As a train weaves its way up to the arctic circle, two strangers share a journey that will change their perspective on life.
The film opens in the modest Moscow apartment of Irina (Dinara Drukarova), an intellectual showing off her knowledge of literature to an apparently overwhelmed Laura (Seidi Haarla), something of a waif from Finland who has ventured abroad to study the Russian language.
Laura is planning a trip north to the Arctic to view petroglyphs, 10,000-year-old rock drawings carved using a stone chisel and hammerstone. Irina had intended to accompany Laura but somewhat speciously canceled at the last minute. This leaves Laura to make her way alone under less than ideal conditions, sharing a tiny train compartment with a Russian miner named Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov).
Almost immediately after departing the station, Ljoha breaks out a bottle of vodka, partaking in a favorite Russian pastime. Laura is not impressed with his manners – he smokes, drinks, leaves tangerine peelings on the table, and insists on a conversation about how great Russia is because they beat the Germans and went into space first. He seems instead a boor.
The staff on the train are petulant and rude – apparently par for the course. When Laura tries to pay extra to sleep in a different compartment, the female ticket collector Natalia (Yuliya Aug) simply ignores her request. Laura returns to the compartment and finds Ljoha passed out on a bench instead of his berth. To pass the time, Laura replays a videotape of the party at Irina’s in Moscow – a reminder of where she would rather be.
Upon arriving in St. Petersburg, Laura asks when the next train back to Moscow is scheduled to leave, hoping Irina will welcome her back. Instead, when Laura calls, Irina is already busy entertaining a new lover.
The two young people crammed into Compartment No. 6 are heading to Murmansk for different reasons. While Laura will view the petroglyphs as an intellectual pursuit, Ljoha will work in the mines to save up enough to start his own company.
At the end of a one-night layover, Laura offers to share the compartment with a fellow Fin, angering Ljoha, who sulks in his bed, trying to sleep through to the next stop, where the Fin exits before reaching Murmansk. Once underway, Laura realizes that the Fin had taken her video camera. Ljoha tries to console Laura, who is still disappointed about being away from Irina.
Nearing Murmansk, they decide to celebrate the pending arrival in the restaurant car. With the kitchen out of nearly everything, they settle for champagne and sandwiches, which Ljoha doesn’t like, so he procures something stronger. Laura has drawn a picture of Ljoha and invites him to draw one of her. When she suggests they exchange addresses in case they want to keep in touch, he angrily rejects the idea. What is eating away at him or why her affection puts him off is not altogether clear. When she goes down the hall to get something for the two to drink, he is not in the compartment when she returns. She arrives in Murmansk alone and catches a bus to her hotel.
The hotel informs Laura that the petroglyphs cannot be reached in the winter months and that she would need to return in the summer. Instead, she goes on a tour of Murmansk, brimming with stories of Russian victories against the Germanic hordes during World War II.
She ditches the tour and tries again to make arrangements to see the petroglyphs using a clunky, rotary dial phone. Her first call is to Irina, who offers little in the way of help, as usual. Wandering somewhat aimlessly around Murmansk, she finds her way to the mine where Ljoha works. After asking around, she leaves him a note telling him where she can be reached.
When he shows up at her hotel, he assures her that he can get her to the famed petroglyphs, insisting that the Russians are just lazy asses who just don’t want to drive in the winter. On an extended journey in a cab, they venture further into the frozen wasteland. They are informed that the only way to reach the historical sites is by sea.
Once on the merchant vessel, they appear to be getting close. Ashore, after a long walk along the icy and rocky terrain, merely find another coastline full of empty water in the distance. Trudging through a snowstorm and between an array of shipwrecks, they re-discover what seems to be the pleasure of each other’s company. Yet, upon returning to civilization, Ljoha has the taxi driver drop him off at the mine and then leaves her with the driver, who hands Laura an envelope. Inside is Ljoha’s simple rendering of Laura, which seems to serve as a metaphor for the petroglyphs she never saw or his ineptitude regarding personal or intimate relationships. Laura laughs warmly as she regards the drawing Ljoha made of her, leaving the audience wondering if this is the beginning of much more future, albeit sporadic, encounters between the idiosyncratic couple.
“Compartment No. 6” yields interesting glimpses into the reality of life in post-Soviet Russia – a spartan and meager affair. The point is brought home repeatedly, as evinced by the dilapidated old houses in the countryside and the cramped, dowdy spaces in which people live. It’s a very Hobbesian sort of existence – nasty, brutish, and short.
The screenplay was adapted by Andris Feldmanis and Juho Kuosmanen from the novel by Rosa Liksom. Directed by Juho Kuosmanen in Russian with English subtitles, “Compartment No. 6” offers some insight into the human condition but could have done a better job bringing the pieces together at the end.
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