Kenenbay Kogabekov

A comedy about Krushchev's 'Virgin Lands' project, to transform the barren and inhospitable spaces of the vast Soviet Union into fertile agricultural plains. A classically Socialist-Realist narrative of an individual's 're-education'. Zhenia, a hapless idler, arrives with a band of enthusiastic young Konsomol members to build a new town in the steppe. Although his dream, like that of all the young participants, is 'to become a tractor driver and a hero', he isn't prepared to work for the honour.

The year is 1929. The construction of a railway connecting Central Asia and Siberia is in full swing in Kazakhstan. This highway threatens the age-old way of life of the inhabitants of the steppe, where gangs of Basmachi still operate. The heroes of the film are the chief engineer of the Dzhungarov construction site and an elder of a large family, bai Sarybura. The fate of both is developing dramatically, both, each in their own way, are interested in the early completion of the Turksib.