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The Circus (Tsirk)
Marion Dixon, a popular white American circus artist, is forced to flee for her life with her black baby to escape a lynch mob in a rural American town. The fate of the black father of her child is not mentioned, but it is heavily implied that he was lynched. Dixon is taken under the wing of Franz von Kneishitz, a sinister German theatrical agent whose mustache and mannerisms resemble those of Adolf Hitler. Kneishitz blackmails Dixon into becoming his lover while exploiting her.
Dixon is only kept alive by her love for her son Jimmy, and when she plays in Moscow as a guest performer, she is portrayed as spiritually broken. At the Moscow circus, the circus director Ludvig hires the Arctic explorer Ivan Petrovich Martynov to design a new circus act to top Dixon's "Trip to the Moon" act. Ludvig's fiery daughter Rayechka has a tempestuous relationship with her boyfriend Skameikin. Despite his mission to design an act better than her act, Martynov and Dixon fall in love, which attracts Kneishitz's rage and he beats Dixon quite savagely with his whip.
Dixon wants to stay in Moscow with Martynov, saying she has found happiness again. Kneishitz diverts a love letter from Dixon meant for Martynov to Skameikin, which throws the circus into romantic chaos as Rayechka is furious with Skameikin while Martynov is heartbroken. To escape Rayechka, Skameikin accidentally runs into a lion cage and has to calm the lions with a bouquet of flowers. When Martynov does not respond to her love letter, Dixon nearly leaves Moscow with Kneishitz. By this time, Rayechka has learned the truth and she helps Dixon escape Kneishitz. Martynov and Dixon are late to the circus, forcing Ludvig to perform the top act of 1903, the chudo tekhniki ("miracle of technology"), to amuse the impatient audience. Finally, Martynov and Dixon arrive and perform their "Trip to the Stratosphere" act together.
Kneishitz interrupts the act to tell Dixon to come with him or else he will reveal her secret. When she refuses, Kneishitz delivers a Hitler-like rant about how Dixon has a black son called Jimmy, only for the audience to laugh at him. Ludvig tells Kneishitz that the peoples of the Soviet Union do not share his concern about racial purity or race at all. Dixon's black son is embraced by friendly Soviet people. Kneishitz tries to seize Jimmy, but the audience unites to save him. Finally, a group of burly Red Army soldiers in the audience block Kneishitz, who cowers in fear and leaves. The movie climaxes with a lullaby being sung to the baby by representatives of various Soviet ethnicities taking turns. The lyrics of the lullaby to Jimmy are sung in Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Uzbek, and Georgian. One of the members of the audience is a black American man dressed in a Soviet naval officer's uniform with a white Russian wife, which was meant to show that there is no racism in the Soviet Union. The lyrics of The International Lullaby declare: " Son prikhodit na porog/Krepko, krepko spi ty/Sto putei, sto dorog/Dlia tebia otkryty " ("Sleep comes to your doorstep/Sleep very, very soundly/A hundred paths, a hundred doorways/Are open to you"). Dixon and Martynov declare their love for one another while Rayechka and Skameikin become engaged. The film ends with Rayechka and Dixon marching together in the annual May Day parade under banners depicting the faces of Lenin and Stalin.