"Frontline Love" by Andrei Konstantinov, summary Automatic translate

"Frontline Love" is a screenplay by Andrei Konstantinov, presumably written in the 2010s. It’s the story of a military cameraman and a journalist, whose long-held mutual dislike and chance throw them into the same assignment, where war turns everything upside down. Konstantinov, the author of "Gangster Petersburg," isn’t writing an action film here, but a bitter drama about how feelings born in war are almost always doomed.

Moscow: Unloved Colleagues

Two people work at the Moscow television center: Dmitry (Mitya), an experienced cameraman and war correspondent, and Eleonora Rozova (née Sokolovskaya), who has risen to the rank of deputy general director of a federal channel. They have been at odds for a long time: Mitya teases her, and she complains about him to her superiors. The blind general director, Alexander Mikhailovich, is forced to send them both to Damascus for an international conference. There are simply no other experienced people with foreign passports available.

Mitya is seen off by his high-school daughter, Olga — a sarcastic, mature woman beyond her years. Eleanor is seen off by her oligarch husband, Yuri Rozov , who worries and won’t let her go, but eventually relents.

Damascus: Old Friends and First Wine

At the airport, Mitya runs into his journalist friend Pavel Bobkov (aka "Bear Cub"), a gay man fired from the opposition channel "Sneg," and his classmate, Nikolai Sukhov , an orientalist who is flying on a special flight. Sukhov hints that the conference is crude, hasty, and politically murky.

On the very first evening at the Funduq al-Rais Presidential Hotel in Damascus, Prudence McGee , a CNN star whom all three had met in Iraq, shows up at the bar. She’s now at Fox News, with loans and scandals under her belt. After the men leave, Prudence and Elya are left alone, drinking until the morning. The American woman casually mentions that Mitya walked her to her room in Baghdad, but nothing happened between them — she found him asleep on the floor in the hallway that morning. This is a surprise for Elya.

Market: Death is Near

The next day, while everyone waits for the meeting with Assad , Elya and Prudence — still drunk from the night before — persuade a Syrian major to allow the film crews to go to the market. There, Tahrir al-Sham militants, who had infiltrated the city ahead of the conference, stage a mutiny. In the panic and gunfire, two Syrian lieutenants on security guard duty are killed while shielding the journalists. Mitya and Elya take refuge in a spice shop — one lieutenant dies right in their arms, his blood soaking Eleanor’s white suit.

Mitya, without losing his head, films what is happening, and then pulls Elya out - having first torn off her high-heeled shoes so that he could escape.

After what I’ve been through

The horror they experienced brings two people, accustomed to ignoring each other, closer together. In Damascus, and then in Prague — where they fly to attend an international journalism award ceremony — Mitya and Elya develop the very feeling he calls "frontline love": sharp, spicy, doomed.

In Prague, Elya appears at the ceremony in a luxurious dress — Mitya seems to be seeing her for the first time. They attend the ceremony together, as a couple. On stage, they accept their prize and joke about their acceptance speech. A strange man, his eyes dull, watches them from the audience.

Catastrophe

The return from Prague ends in tragedy: the plane crashes. Of the more than 150 passengers — journalists and artists — not a single one survives. Among the dead are Eleonora and Teddy Bear.

Mitya, who wasn’t on that flight, goes on a drinking binge. His daughter Olga and Sukhov find him at home in a serious state — mountains of empty bottles in the kitchen, dirty dishes in the sink.

Parting

Rows of identical coffins line the cemetery in Mytishchi. DNA testing identified the remains of only 90 of the 150 victims; only fragments of Eleanor’s remains were found. Mitya stands at her grave, aged and sallow-faced. Olga stands next to her, holding roses. Mitya knows what Eleanor’s husband, Yuri, doesn’t: she was pregnant at the time of her death — and not his child.