Strakh vysoty (1976)

Young scientist Anton Tikhomirov fell from the window of his apartment the morning after defending his dissertation. Not everyone who knew him believes that he died by suicide; he was afraid of heights and had a zest for life. Tikhomirov’s mysterious death raises many difficult questions for investigator Igor Mazin, who realizes that understanding what happened means looking to the scientist’s acquaintances and friends. Mazin questions the deceased man’s ex-wife, Irina; his fiancée, Svetlana Meshkova; his friend and colleague, Ilya Rozhdestvensky; Professor Vladimir Dyagilev; and his former lover, Inna Krotova. After inspecting Anton Tikhomirov’s apartment, the investigator concludes that another person had been there before the scientist died. The possibility of murder arises, and Mazin must gather irrefutable evidence to confirm or rule it out. He begins delving into the academic community and discovers that Tikhomirov’s dissertation is essentially plagiarized from the works of the late scientist Krotov, which Krotov’s daughter Inna had given him when she was Tikhomirov’s lover. The film raises the issue of plagiarism in academia. At the end of the film, investigator Mazin concludes that Tikhomirov’s downfall began before this tragic incident. The film was shot in Rostov-on-Don.