The relatively unheralded Russian film Simple Things is one of the happiest surprises of this year's Tribeca lineup. Written and directed by Alexi Popogresbsky, the film is a wry character study of an anesthetist--Sergei, played by Sergei Puskepalis--whose teenaged daughter has moved in with her boyfriend, giving Sergei and his beautiful wife a few extra inches of breathing space in their tiny apartment. Sergei is already struggling with the question of whether this is cause for celebration or a reason to despair when his wife informs him that she's pregnant again. Bewildered about where his life is going but pretty sure that he'd have trouble affording it no matter what, Sergei takes a job moonlighting for a shady company that supplies in-home painkilling services to the terminally ill. In turn, their clients agree to sign their apartments over to them after they die. He winds up making regular housecalls to an ancient actor (Leonid Bronevoy, who looks like a Slavic Jean Renoir), who offers him a bribe of a valuable painting in exchange for a lethal injection.

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