How to Become Happy

In 1986, Soviet director Yuri Chulyukin released *How to Become Happy*, a comedy-science fiction film. Its story centers on a modest physics teacher from the small town of Lesogorsk who, in 1980, creates a device capable of revealing a child's natural talents and career potential. When he brings his invention to Moscow, he is met with skepticism. A photojournalist named Gosha initially sees a sensational story, but his enthusiasm wanes when the device tells him his true calling is to be a clown, not the great writer he aspires to be. Gosha rejects the inventor.

A decade later, a remarkable number of talented young people from Lesogorsk—artists, athletes, scientists, and craftsmen—achieve national and international fame. Gosha, now a department head but still unsuccessful, investigates the connection. He learns the inventor’s analysis of his wife was also correct; she discovered a talent for sculpture and found success, a result the inventor had secretly predicted while she slept. Gosha then discovers that the scan of his own son’s talents was accidentally destroyed by the boy. Desperate to find the inventor, Gosha learns he has died, having dismantled his invention beforehand. At a ceremony honoring the scientist in Lesogorsk, Gosha is inspired by the inventor’s memory and resolves to change his life, even at an older age.

The cast includes Nikolai Karachentsov as Gosha, Marina Dyuzheva as his wife Zoya, and Lev Durov as the old inventor.