Elena Antonova

A few weeks from the life of a Komsomol leaders in Soviet Union.

A tired, naive librarian in her fourties, has experienced hard labor, chores, and failed love. Her brittle voice and childish naiveness add to her defenselessness. Despite her stubbornness, she maintains a strong spirit that helps her stay true to herself.

In 1934, Margarita Chugueva, nicknamed Vaska for her large frame and masculine strength, was working on the construction of the Moscow Metro. One day, among the newcomers to the brigade, she recognized Osip, her tormentor, who had mocked special settlers in the Siberian settlement where the family of wealthy peasants Chuguevs was exiled during the years of collectivization, and from where Margarita had escaped.

A case brings together Donetsk Polytechnic Institute student Ivan Krasko, owner of a beautiful strong voice, with former singer Korobeichenko. Contrary to the will of his father, a hereditary miner, the hero refuses graduate school in Moscow and, under the guidance of a new friend, begins to seriously prepare for his first solo performance.

This is the second installment of a three-part series of autobiographical films about the director's life. The first, which won various awards for its maker, was entitled Zamri Oumi Voskresni and was later retitled Zari, Umri, Vokresni ("Freeze-Die-Come to Life"). At the end of that film, set at the conclusion of World War II, the young Valerka was striving hard to overcome the inertia of just getting by, along with his sometime friend Galiya. In this one, he is adjusting to Galiya's death and is back in school and is living with his mother, a prostitute. After a girl at the school is found to have been gang-raped, the headmaster chooses Valerka to be one of the scapegoats, though he had nothing to do with the deed. The punishment seems mild enough, he was simply expelled from school. However, after quarrelling with his mother about the incident, he takes to the road, and discovers a society so bleak, degraded and hopeless that it is a wonder he remained alive.