The New Year's Rate Plan

The New Year's Rate Plan (Russian: Тариф «Новогодний») is a 2008 Russian comedy film directed by Evgeny Bedarev.^[1][2][3]

In the film, a peculiar phone service plan called the "New Year’s Tariff" comes into play when a young man named Andrey receives it as a gift from an unusual woman while purchasing a replacement phone. On New Year's Eve in 2009, Andrey and his friends gather in Red Square and, following a local custom, he dials a random number to wish a stranger a happy new year. This call connects him to Alena, a woman heartbroken after a recent breakup. When they attempt to meet, Andrey and Alena are shocked to discover they are living one year apart: Andrey in 2009, and Alena in 2008.

Determined to meet her, Andrey visits Alena’s address but learns she was tragically killed in a car accident just 15 minutes before New Year’s 2009. To save her, he investigates the accident, uncovering every detail, and relays this information to Alena through a video message in her timeline. Alena, now aware of the impending disaster, assembles a team to prevent it. On New Year's Eve 2009, they plan to delay the chain of events that caused the crash. However, their efforts fail, and in a twist, Andrey—recently back from a work trip—ends up on the bus that Alena was meant to avoid. Despite the team’s intervention, the collision occurs, but the bus miraculously avoids an explosion. Andrey, stepping off the bus, is nearly struck by a tanker truck but is saved when Alena calls his name at the last second, reuniting them safely at the end of 2008.

The film concludes with a café waitress visiting the same phone store, where the mysterious salesperson offers her the "New Year’s Tariff" along with her new phone, hinting at future magical connections.^[4]

• Valeriya Lanskaya as Alena
• Maksim Matveyev as Andrey
• Svetlana Sukhanova as Rita
• Evgeniy Slavsky as Vadim
• Boris Korchevnikov as Pashka
• Roman Polyanskiy
• Miroslava Karpovich as Olechka
• Ekaterina Malikova as Masha
• Mark Bogatyryov as Maks
• Stanislav Belyaev as Danilov (as Stas Belyaev)^[5]

• The New Year's Rate Plan at IMDb