Lichter is an episodic tale from Hans-Christian Schmid about the life on the border between Germany and Poland. The film sheds light on the everyday stories of escape and desperateness.

Vadik Chernyshov is an impoverished dreamer who spends his life drifting though Moscow with a video camera, hoping to shoot footage that will interest Western press agencies. He falls in love with the beautiful Helen, an English media executive, and subsequently they must contend with the barriers that their different backgrounds present.

n Belgium he was called Jean, in Russia - Ivan Sergeevich. A world sports star, a Formula 1 hero, returns from exile to become the owner of Empire, a large trading company. He doesn’t understand much about modern Russian life.

Igor is an evening school student who is in love with his teacher Inna Vitalievna. She has a family that is on the verge of collapse. Igor, who has just returned from the army, forces Inna to take a fresh look at life...

Russian woman is robbed after crossing Polish border and has to wait until the local policemen catch the thieves. The priest, who is the main authority in the town, orders that she stays at organist's house.

In a small, poor town, a young worker falls in love with an actress from a traveling theater troupe and tries to keep her close, dreaming and working hard to rebuild a new town while the troupe increasingly faces decline and the end of its run.

Maks arrives at his hometown following his father's request. He meets Lena at the club and have sex with her. The next morning Maks finds out that his father asked him to come because of his wedding with Lena...

A secret unit to combat aliens has been operating since the Second World War, as we learn from newsreels. The action is transferred to New Year's Eve, 1998, to the Gorky Film Studio, where the New Year's program is being filmed. Among the filmmakers, in addition to the mummers, there was also one real Santa Claus, who has been fulfilling one wish once a year for 2 million years. Three guards, a girl from a variety show, a revived dummy and a mischievous boy fought off the international anti-alien forces and tried to come up with this one desire, but they could not. And when Santa Claus disappeared (his time was up) everyone found a gift in the bag that perfectly matched their wishes.

A nice and intelligent girl Lena from a well-to-do nomenklatura family and her friend Alexei - the son of a large factory's chief manager in Minsk - gradually sink to the bottom of life due to heroin addiction.