Hussein Erkenov's courageous and stinging indictment of communism. Five young Red Army recruits struggle for survival against the merciless violence that surrounds them on a daily basis. Their only means of saving their dignity is by preserving the humanity and compassion they share for each other.
A comedy based on three short novels by Vasiliy Shukshin.
The film tells about the childhood of Yuri Gagarin, about that time of life, which, in his own words, played an important role in shaping his character: war, the occupation of their villages by the Germans, famine, the theft of the elder brother and sister to Germany, the expulsion of the Nazis from Smolensk, moving family in the city of Gzhatsk.
