A shepherd dog left behind by accident at a sprawling airport becomes an unlikely anchor for a grieving nine-year-old in Palma, a 2021 Russian-Japanese family drama directed by Alexandr Domogarov Jr.
What is Palma about?
Palma is stranded among strangers, freight carts, and departure gates the moment her owner forgets her on the tarmac. Nine-year-old Nicholas is navigating a loss of his own: his mother has died, and he is sent to live with a father he barely knows, a pilot whose job keeps him airborne more than he is home. Their paths cross at the airport, and what starts as a chance meeting between a stray dog and a lonely boy grows into something neither of them set out to find. The film follows that bond as it develops unevenly, showing how a household reshaped by grief slowly makes space for a companion nobody planned for. Rather than forcing a quick reconciliation between father and son, the story lets Palma's steady presence do the quiet work, easing a tension that a child's loss and a distant parent have left raw. The airport setting recurs throughout, a place built for transit and separation that becomes, instead, where a new kind of family starts to take shape.
About the cast
Victor Dobronravov plays Nicholas's father, the pilot forced to rebuild a relationship with a son he does not yet know how to parent. Leonid Basov, Vladimir Ilin, Valeriya Fedorovich, Evgeniya Dmitrieva, Igor Khripunov, Pavel Maykov, and Vladimir Simonov round out the supporting cast. The production brings together talent and crew from both Russia and Japan, a joint arrangement that shaped the film's international backdrop and its airport-centered scope.
Context & significance
Palma sits in a well-worn but reliable tradition: the animal-companion drama built around loss, distance, and eventual reconciliation. What sets this one apart is its joint Russian-Japanese production, unusual for a family film of this scale, and its choice to root the story at a busy international airport rather than a home or town, keeping a sense of transience present in nearly every scene. Released in 2021 and running 110 minutes, the film gives its central relationship room to develop gradually instead of rushing toward a tidy resolution in the final act.
Watching Palma on Ktime
Palma is available on K-Time with both a Farsi dub and Persian subtitles, so Farsi-speaking households can pick whichever fits the room best. Watching does require a free K-Time account login, but this page and its overview are open to read without signing in first. K-Time's Farsi-first design makes a family title like this easy to find alongside the rest of the catalogue built for the Iranian diaspora.