Lunchtime read: A Hero's Daughter

The same tragic situation that keeps Ivan trapped in the past and reliant on the bottle strikes in Moscow and his daughter’s life quickly unravels.

After discovering that his daughter is effectively a state sponsored prostitute her father chooses to take his anger out on a tourist café and is dragged off by the police but suffers a heart attack on the way to the station. Meanwhile any dreams his daughter had of marrying a rich diplomat crumble and she along with her flat mate who loses her boyfriend in Afghanistan both slip into the same miserable existence their parents knew before them.

Dreams of escaping are sadly beyond their reach. But suddenly the hero’s daughter discovers she is pregnant and she starts to pin her hopes on having a son of her own and leaving the capital and returning home to the country. Sadly that is the only dream she can cling to as everything else goes wrong for her.

Meanwhile Ivan is waiting to come out of hospital and be charged and hands over his hero’s medal for his daughter to look after.

All around the misery continues and there is an ironical scene where a German who had been in the army and looked through the Kremlin towers as the Nazi’s advanced on the city manages to see the same view again but this time from his hotel bedroom window.

More tomorrow…