Mikhail Petrenko

Mikhail Petrenko is a veteran, a man of few words and many scars, and he is the watchful presence at the edge of the Jewish Snack and at the edge of the score. He sits outside, keeps his own counsel, and only ever accepts food to go.

He is a US Army veteran who has made a kind of peace by watching over the neighborhood from its margins. He is the one person in the story who can silence Elaine Vanderbilt with nothing but a look, which tells you most of what you need to know about both of them.

His song in the film is Katerinka Mine, carried as a voice over rather than a performance. He does not sing on screen so much as the film pauses, for a moment, to remember what he is guarding and why.