Trison the Labrador Conquers Hollywood

Mikhail Samarsky

Trison, a golden Labrador retriever whose extraordinary life has taken him from guiding blind people to rescuing children, investigating crimes and traveling across continents, is about to enter a world in which almost everything is an illusion.

Hollywood.

But before the cameras begin rolling, the Labrador must confront a more immediate challenge: life with his new younger brother, Marcel.

Three months have passed since Maksim Yeliseyev, Trison's police partner, and his wife Alexandra brought home a chocolate-colored Labrador puppy. Marcel has grown rapidly, but his character remains gloriously undisciplined. He destroys furniture, chews through household objects, devours whatever food he can reach and possesses an inexhaustible talent for causing trouble.

Trison considers himself responsible for the youngster's education. Unfortunately, Marcel has his own ideas about justice, property and obedience. When he destroys a technician's shoes, his explanation is perfectly logical to him: the man should not have left them on Marcel's mat.

The puppy's misadventures culminate in a domestic catastrophe that forces the family to repair damaged electrical and communication systems.

Trison watches his younger companion with a mixture of irritation, affection and reluctant admiration. He recognizes that the puppy's curiosity may eventually develop into intelligence and courage, provided someone survives the process of raising him.

Meanwhile, Trison continues serving alongside Maksim in the police.

Their latest assignment involves a series of wallet thefts in the Moscow Metro. The victims are mostly unsuspecting passengers whose attention is absorbed by their phones.

One of them, a young student named Veronika, has lost something far more important to her than money or documents. Inside her stolen wallet was a tiny antique mouse charm inherited from her great-grandmother.

She begs the police to recover it.

The investigation sends Trison into an environment he finds deeply unsettling. Although he has traveled by underground trains before, Moscow's crowded stations, narrow spaces, moving escalators and strict rules for dogs create an exhausting combination of obstacles.

He is required to wear a muzzle and must overcome his fear of the escalators. At one point Maksim carries him in his arms, much to the Labrador's embarrassment. Yet the young officer treats his friend's fears with understanding rather than ridicule.

They are partners, and partners do not abandon each other.

For several days, Trison and the officers patrol trains and stations, searching for the thief by the scent left on a baseball cap belonging to him.

The investigation demands patience, concentration and extraordinary endurance.

Finally, Trison identifies a suspicious young man in a crowded carriage. The officers surround him without attracting attention. Moments later the suspect steals another passenger's wallet and is caught in the act.

The stolen mouse charm is recovered.

Veronika gets back the keepsake she feared losing forever, while Trison receives official recognition for his contribution to the investigation.

But the successful operation is soon overshadowed by unexpected news.

Maksim has received a message from Christopher Poland, the famous American actor whom Trison saved in the Swiss Alps.

During that earlier adventure, Christopher lost control of his snowboard and fell down a steep wooded slope. Trison discovered him unconscious, found passing tourists and brought rescuers to the scene.

Without the Labrador, Christopher might never have been found alive.

Now the actor has recovered from his injuries and wants to visit Moscow.

He has an unusual proposition.

When Christopher arrives at the Yeliseyev apartment, he is welcomed by Maksim and Alexandra with warmth and curiosity. Trison recognizes the man whose life he saved, while Marcel enthusiastically investigates the visitor and every opportunity for obtaining treats.

Over tea and Alexandra's homemade pancakes, Christopher explains the real reason for his journey.

After awakening from a coma, he learned the details of his accident. A rescuer told him that without the Russian Labrador's intervention, his chances of survival would have been almost nonexistent.

The revelation profoundly affected him.

He began thinking about the recklessness of people who risk their lives for excitement, the responsibility humans bear toward animals and the strange ways in which an act of kindness can change a person's destiny.

Eventually he decided to make a film inspired by his rescue.

Christopher will direct it and play one of the principal human characters.

But he insists that the leading canine role must belong to the actual dog who saved him.

Trison.

The offer astonishes the family.

Christopher explains that the Labrador will receive a proper actor's fee. He is not proposing to buy the dog; he is hiring him to work in a film.

The financial terms are generous enough to improve the family's living conditions significantly.

But the commitment is considerable.

Filming will take at least four months, and Trison must live with Christopher in Los Angeles.

Maksim and Alexandra are reluctant to be separated from their beloved companion for so long. They are also worried about his safety in a distant country.

Christopher promises to take full responsibility for him and offers to bring the family to the American premiere.

Eventually they agree.

For Trison, the prospect is both exciting and painful.

He has been a guide dog, a rescuer and a police assistant. Now he will become an actor.

But becoming a movie star means leaving the people he loves and the irrepressible little Marcel behind.

The next day Christopher and Trison leave Russia aboard the actor's private aircraft.

The journey introduces the Labrador to a kind of luxury he has never experienced.

Instead of being confined to a transport crate in a cargo compartment, he travels in the passenger cabin, stretches out on comfortable furniture and is treated as an honored guest.

During the flight he begins to understand the extraordinary privileges enjoyed by wealthy celebrities.

He also discovers something more important: Christopher behaves toward him not as a valuable possession but as a friend.

The actor talks to him, shares food, worries about his comfort and repeatedly expresses gratitude for the life Trison saved.

Arriving in Los Angeles, the Labrador is met by Wilson, Christopher's driver and trusted assistant.

Wilson and his wife Marie have taken care of the actor's house during his absence. They have even prepared a separate room for Trison.

The Labrador is astonished by Christopher's magnificent home in the Hollywood Hills, with its spacious rooms, gardens, terraces and swimming pool.

The luxury is impressive, although Trison privately wonders why anyone needs such an enormous house simply to eat, sleep and watch television.

Marie wins his affection immediately through her kindness and excellent cooking.

Wilson, despite his imposing appearance, proves gentle and considerate.

For the first time since leaving home, Trison begins to feel that he might be able to live happily in California.

On the drive from the airport, Christopher introduces him to the screenplay.

The proposed film is called Redemption.

Its central character, Vincent Soloviti, is a successful television presenter, famous for his political talk show and convinced of his own superiority.

Vincent is vain, domineering and accustomed to having every wish obeyed.

He marries Amanda, a young journalist who admires him and dreams of building a television career of her own.

But Vincent believes that his wife's proper place is at home. He refuses to accept her ambitions and suspects that she married him only to advance her career.

Their marriage collapses.

Amanda leaves, while Vincent continues his successful life without making any serious attempt to understand his own mistakes.

Then he receives news of his brother Fabio's death.

The brothers have not been close for years. Vincent reluctantly travels to arrange the funeral and discovers that Fabio has left behind a five-month-old Labrador puppy named Ray.

Rather than accept responsibility for the animal, Vincent takes him into the countryside and abandons him beside a road.

The puppy is left alone.

Vincent drives away without remorse.

Later, while vacationing in the mountains, the television star loses control of his snowboard and suffers a terrible accident.

A Labrador finds him and helps bring rescuers to the scene.

The experience changes everything.

While Vincent lies unconscious in hospital, Amanda learns of his injuries. She has finally received the television opportunity she dreamed of, but instead of accepting it, she goes to care for her former husband.

When Vincent awakens from his coma and discovers what she has sacrificed, he begins to understand the cruelty of his past behavior.

Amanda tells him about the dog who saved his life.

Vincent remembers the puppy he abandoned.

Overwhelmed by guilt, he sets out to find Ray, who has passed through several homes and eventually ended up in an animal shelter.

He succeeds in locating the now-grown Labrador.

The act of recovering the abandoned dog becomes an outward expression of Vincent's inner transformation.

Christopher's film is not simply a dramatization of his accident. It is a story about arrogance, ingratitude, cruelty and the possibility of moral change.

Its essential question is whether a person who has behaved selfishly and hurt others can recognize those wrongs and become capable of love.

Trison has mixed feelings about the screenplay.

He is outraged by Vincent's treatment of the puppy. He finds it almost impossible to imagine how anyone could abandon a helpless animal so casually.

Yet Christopher asks him an important question: when Trison saved him in the Alps, did he stop to consider whether the injured man was a good person?

Of course not.

He helped because someone needed help.

The answer forces the Labrador to confront the deeper meaning of his own vocation.

Kindness cannot depend entirely on whether its recipient deserves it.

Sometimes an act of compassion may become the very thing that teaches a selfish person to change.

Trison begins to understand why Christopher has chosen this story.

Soon the Labrador visits the famous Universal Pictures studios.

For a dog who has never been inside a film production facility, the experience is overwhelming.

He discovers enormous windowless buildings, elaborate artificial landscapes, cameras moving on rails, lighting equipment, trailers and hundreds of people working behind the scenes.

One studio contains an artificial Alpine mountain complete with snow and a frighteningly realistic slope.

It is here that Trison will reenact Christopher's rescue.

He meets members of the production team, including Mike, the screenwriter, Fred, the cinematographer, Meg, an assistant director, and Ann, the actress playing Amanda.

Ann immediately wins his friendship with her warmth and affection.

But Trison's first exploration of the studio turns into an extraordinary ordeal.

He encounters an actor dressed as a Wild West cowboy who frightens him so thoroughly that the Labrador flees.

Unable to find his way back, he wanders into the elaborate world of the studio's tourist attractions.

There he experiences what appear to be a catastrophic flood, a ruined city and a terrifying battle involving gigantic dinosaurs and King Kong.

Trison believes the dangers are real.

Only gradually does he discover that the disasters are carefully constructed illusions, created through machinery, scenery and special effects.

At one point he even tries to alert people to what he believes is a genuine catastrophe.

Eventually Christopher finds the missing Labrador and brings him safely home.

The experience leaves Trison amazed by the ingenuity of cinema and slightly offended that human beings invest so much effort into creating convincing disasters merely to entertain one another.

His real work begins soon afterward.

Christopher is a demanding director, and Trison quickly learns that filmmaking is nothing like the glamorous profession he imagined.

A single action must be repeated many times. Actors must arrive in exactly the right positions, speak with the appropriate emotions and coordinate their movements with cameras and lighting.

The Labrador must distinguish between ordinary instructions and commands intended only for the film.

Even a simple run across an artificial snowfield can require repeated takes.

Trison initially finds this exhausting.

He has spent his entire life acting decisively when faced with danger. Now he is expected to repeat the same action again and again, long after the danger has vanished.

But his intelligence, discipline and experience prove invaluable.

When the production reaches the scene in which he finds Christopher lying injured below the slope, Trison remembers the real rescue.

He approaches the actor, examines him and tries to revive him, just as he did in Switzerland.

The scene is filmed successfully after only a small number of takes.

Christopher and the crew are delighted.

The Labrador has achieved something more convincing than a performance learned through routine training.

He has recreated an experience that changed both his life and Christopher's.

Other scenes prove more difficult.

Three actors must portray the tourists whom Trison alerted in the Alps. One of them, Steve, is an inexperienced performer whose nervousness and awkward delivery repeatedly ruin the takes.

Christopher loses patience and sharply criticizes him.

Trison is uncomfortable watching the young man struggle.

Then he sees another side of the director's character.

Although Christopher is strict, he refuses to dismiss Steve immediately. He recognizes the young actor's potential and insists that the team help him improve.

Trison realizes that professional excellence requires not only talent but persistence, discipline and the willingness to learn from mistakes.

Throughout filming he becomes increasingly attached to the crew.

He enjoys the friendship of Ann, Marie's excellent meals and the comfortable companionship of Wilson and Christopher.

He even helps when the young Labrador playing Ray proves difficult to control during a scene. Understanding the puppy's behavior, Trison shows the human performers how to obtain the response they need.

Yet the Labrador's growing professional confidence is accompanied by homesickness.

He misses Maksim, Alexandra and Marcel.

The luxury of Hollywood cannot replace the familiar sounds and smells of home.

He begins to understand that a grand house, personal staff and celebrity privileges do not necessarily make a person less lonely.

Christopher himself lives alone.

Although he is famous and wealthy, he has experienced disappointment in love and has never found the lasting family life he once hoped for.

His affection for Trison gradually becomes one of the warmest relationships in his life.

Outside the studio, the Labrador's adventures continue.

Christopher introduces him to his friend and neighbor Leonardo, known as Leo, who owns an extremely unusual pet: a smooth-fronted caiman named Patrick.

At first Trison is horrified by the crocodilian creature.

Patrick has powerful jaws, reptilian eyes and a body that seems designed for frightening innocent dogs.

But the caiman turns out to be sociable, playful and unexpectedly gentle.

He even invites Trison to ride on his back while he swims in the pool.

The Labrador reluctantly accepts and finds himself enjoying an experience he would never have imagined possible.

The friendship forces him to question appearances and prejudice.

An animal that looks dangerous or unattractive may still be capable of affection, loyalty and trust.

Another remarkable encounter awaits him in the hills around Christopher's home.

One night Trison discovers that a large wild puma has entered the property.

The animal introduces herself as Godzilla.

Despite her frightening appearance, she has no intention of attacking him. She explains that she has visited the house before and found food left outside by its owner.

For some time Christopher had apparently been feeding her without ever seeing his mysterious visitor.

Trison is fascinated by the puma's independent life.

She tells him about hunting, raising her young and surviving in the hills above Los Angeles. She also complains about tourists who trespass into wild animals' territory in search of photographs near the famous Hollywood sign.

Their conversations provide a comic and thoughtful contrast between the natural world and the vanity of human celebrity culture.

Godzilla eventually persuades Trison to visit her territory.

The expedition lasts until morning.

When the Labrador returns, Christopher is frantic with worry and preparing to organize a search.

Trison realizes how deeply his disappearance has frightened his friend.

He then manages to introduce the actor to the puma.

Christopher finally discovers who has been eating the meat left on his terrace.

The meeting establishes a new, unusual connection between the lonely film star and a wild creature living nearby.

As the film approaches completion, Trison becomes increasingly familiar with Hollywood's social world.

Christopher takes him to a glamorous film-industry gathering, where the Labrador encounters actors, musicians, celebrities and their pampered pets.

A little dog named Daisy explains the intricate hierarchy of fame and social importance to him.

Trison finds the spectacle both fascinating and absurd.

He observes people who appear to measure their worth by awards, publicity and the amount of attention they receive.

For a dog whose life has been shaped by rescue work, the distinction between genuine achievement and celebrity status is difficult to understand.

He knows that saving a life matters more than being photographed beside someone famous.

Yet he also begins to appreciate the extraordinary labor involved in creating films.

The long months of work eventually come to an end.

The production is completed, editing nears its conclusion and the premiere is scheduled.

Trison realizes that his American adventure is almost over.

He is eager to return home, but the thought of leaving Christopher, Marie, Wilson and his extraordinary new animal friends fills him with sadness.

Christopher's attachment to him has become so deep that the actor briefly asks whether Trison might remain in America.

The Labrador cannot answer in words, but his feelings are clear.

He loves Christopher, yet he cannot abandon Maksim, Alexandra and Marcel.

Christopher immediately recognizes the unfairness of his suggestion and apologizes.

He respects the very loyalty that made Trison his savior.

Finally, the day of the premiere arrives.

A special outfit has been prepared for the Labrador: an elegant vest and bow tie.

Trison feels faintly ridiculous in formal clothing, but Christopher assures him that he looks magnificent.

At the cinema, crowds of guests, journalists and photographers gather to see the film.

Its title is Redemption.

The promotional poster features Trison leaping across a snowy Alpine slope, the very landscape where he once saved Christopher's life.

The actor is about to make his directorial debut.

Trison is about to see himself on the screen for the first time.

Inside the packed theater, Christopher takes the stage and addresses the audience.

He thanks everyone who helped make the film possible and explains that the story has a deeply personal origin.

Then, before introducing the cast and crew, he asks Trison to join him.

The Labrador climbs onto the stage, trembling with nervousness.

Christopher places a hand on his head and introduces him as his most loyal friend.

He tells the audience that without this extraordinary Russian dog, he would not be standing before them.

Trison saved his life.

And in the film they are about to watch, the dog plays the leading role.

The hall erupts in applause.

Trison is overwhelmed by the attention, the bright lights and the hundreds of faces turned toward him.

Then the doors at the back of the theater open.

Two familiar figures appear.

Maksim and Alexandra.

For a moment Trison cannot believe his eyes.

He has spent months dreaming of this reunion, but had no idea that Christopher had arranged for his family to be present at the premiere.

The actor smiles.

It is his final surprise.

Trison leaps down from the stage and races toward the people he loves.

As he throws himself into their arms, the audience applauds even more enthusiastically.

The film has not yet begun, but the theater has already witnessed its most moving scene.

And this one is not acting.

The novel ends at this extraordinary moment of reunion.

Trison has crossed the world, discovered the secrets of filmmaking, befriended a crocodilian and a wild puma, experienced the absurdities of celebrity culture and become the leading actor in a Hollywood production.

Yet his greatest happiness has nothing to do with fame.

It is being reunited with his family.

The parallel story of Christopher's film gives the ending an additional meaning. In Redemption, an act of rescue makes a selfish man confront his own cruelty and recover his capacity for love.

In Trison's real life, the rescue of Christopher has created a bond strong enough to cross national, cultural and even species boundaries.

Through the Labrador's witty and affectionate narration, Mikhail Samarsky explores the tension between illusion and reality, fame and friendship, ambition and responsibility.

Hollywood can create entire worlds on a soundstage. It can turn actors into heroes and make the impossible appear real.

But the courage that brought Trison to the injured snowboarder in the Alps was never an illusion.

Neither is the love that brings him running into Maksim and Alexandra's arms.

A dog may conquer Hollywood, but the greatest role he will ever play is being someone's loyal friend.