In 1956, a woman in a small Russian town picked up a religious icon, danced with it, and allegedly froze on the spot. She remained that way for 128 days, and the event came to be known as Zoya’s Trance. In a series of individual stories, director Proshkin doesn’t judge the event a miracle or otherwise, He examines how average Russians were affected by it. A journalist, a priest, a factory worker and Nikita Khrushchev himself all reconcile the event in their own way, and in doing so offers a glimpse into the national mindset, a view that is hopeful and upbeat and independent of the dour perceptions common in Russian cinema.