Valentin Donguzashvili

The Great Patriotic War is coming to an end. Six-year-old Zuriko lives with his grandmother in a small Georgian village. His mother abandoned him and his father is at the front. The boy waits for his father, but he doesn't come back from the war alone, but with a new wife, Iano. A conflict arises between the three.

The old peasant Minago Iremadze and his wife miss their children who live in the city. The older brother married a city girl, the younger studies there. Minago decides to bring them back home. He goes to the city and tells everything to his sons. The brothers understand their dad well but cannot abandon the city life.

Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Georgy Makharashvili, ancien viticulteur paysan, quitte son village géorgien et se rend au front pour retrouver son fils, un soldat blessé. Mais avant que le père puisse se rendre à l'hôpital, le fils a été renvoyé au front. Le père ne peut pas retourner dans son village sans avoir retrouvé son fils, il accompagne donc l'armée soviétique jusqu'à la victoire finale sur le fascisme à Berlin.

Martia, an experienced shepherd together with others is moving his herd to the winter pastures. The life of the shepherds is mundane and complex to the extent that even a minor mistake is fraught with serious consequences. Martia’s older son forsakes the herd for good and moves to the city in quest of easy money. In his attempt to save the herd scattered by the storm, Martia dies. Martia’s son, who returns home from the city blames himself for the accident and is profoundly repentant.

Story is set in deep Russia, on a wild river in woods called "Ugrum-reka" - the Moody river. Son of a dishonest trader, Prohor Gromov wants to become his own man. He takes his fathers order and goes trough the woods to deliver the furs to the byer in the nearest town. He tries to take the shorter way and get`s lost. At the highest point of this, his fathers servant, Abdulla, who is sent with him to guard him almost shoots him driven by hunger, but comes to the senses and saves his life by continuing to go on.