The "Third Option" is based on the story "Phantom of the Theater" by writer Andrey Dmitriev. The film was originally called "The Phantom of the Theatre", but at the last moment this name was considered inappropriate.
This is the first attempt to talk about "Nord-Ost" in the language of cinema. And against the background of the obvious hushing up of the tragedy, against the backdrop of judicial failures of the victims of the tragedy, against the backdrop of the ongoing war, this statement provokes many questions.
The film does not tell about the dead on the Nord-Ost, not about the survivors - it, oddly enough, is not at all about the Nord-Ost. It's about provincial actors preparing the premiere of The Cherry Orchard. "Nord-Ost" passes in the background, backdrop, scenery. As it turns out at the end, the only actress of this small theater near Moscow, who left to watch the musical, actually deceived her husband, the director, and just spent the night with her lover. And she turned off the phone. And the TV wasn't on. And people in the theater were worried ..