The Geographer Drank His Globe Away

The Geographer Drank His Globe Away (2013) is a Russian drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director Alexandr Veledinsky adapted Aleksei Ivanov's novel about a man who has every practical reason to get his life together and steadily, quietly refuses.

Biologist Viktor Sluzhkin (Konstantin Khabensky) takes a geography-teacher post in Perm because the money ran out. The vice-principal despises him. His ninth-graders, who dub him Geographer on day one, test him until they don't. His wife (Elena Lyiadova) is losing patience, his best friend Budkin (Alexander Robak) has everything Sluzhkin doesn't, and he drinks — without drama, just steadily. The film doesn't frame any of this as tragedy or comedy; it just watches him live.

The story builds toward a river-rafting trip into the Urals with his class, and that's where it earns its ending. Khabensky picked up Russia's Nika and Golden Eagle awards for the performance — understated in a way that keeps catching you off guard. Stream The Geographer Drank His Globe Away online on iFILM.