It's a bit like being a prisoner in a Russian gulag of a little over a century ago, but thanks to some VIPs in the local Party, the gulag has an astounding library with every title he could possibly need. Nonetheless, he plots his escape, all the while trying to figure out how to continue the work outside of the gulag, and without the providential library.
--
Train Station for Two is a very good film, not least because it enunciates a complex political reality within the framework of a popular film. The protagonist is a concert pianist from Moscow, and it's an open question as to whether he or his television weather reporter wife was behind the wheel when they struck someone on the road, so he's been sent off to the work camp prison in the north. Long story short, he meets a waitress in a railroad station restaurant, and the happenstance encounter works well for both.
Translation: elitist, obscurantist artist enduring a purgatory, one that that he can't quite understand, or know whether it is justified, in the people's state on its path to socialism. Some explicit contrasts to more Katchatourian-like music favored by the ethnic types and melon sellers. In fairness, Katchatourian is a lifesaver for second-world orchestras on hard times. Jaunty.