100 Minutes is the tale of thousands of Soviet soldiers who fought the Nazis and whose only ‘crime’ was to get caught. Stalin’s justice meted out on the prisoners who returned home was swift: ten years of forced labour in the Siberian camps. Why then would prisoners like Ivan Denisovich fight to stay alive to face another day of hell?
The film is about a day in the life of Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka, also known as Doctor Liza. Moscow, 2012. The Glinka family prepares for a celebration: thirty years together. The closest friends are invited for dinner, the sons have arrived. Of course, Liza has freed up this day for her family. There’s just a trifle: to stop by the Fund and see the weekly patients at the Paveletsky Station. But the days of Doctor Liza are always full of surprises… In a hospital in a Moscow suburb a five-year-old girl is dying. The duty doctor has to discharge Eva. Due to medical formalities the child, who suffers from cancer, is left without painkillers. In utter despair, the girl’s father turns to Liza for help. When Liza cannot find a way to help the child within the system, she decides on a desperate act…