Oleg Manzhiyev

Fifteen-year-old Aina is going through her first difficulties. For the first time, she felt lonely and unprotected. The father left after the divorce, the mother is trying to arrange her personal life. The only true friend - grandfather - dies in Aina's arms. For her inconvenient character - the desire to get to the bottom of right and wrong actions - the girl was nicknamed mad. Aina, who cannot tolerate lies, has a hard time both at school and at home. But she is strong because she has her own ideas about a happy life.

To help the starving peasants of 1918 Turkestan, the Soviet government sends a caravan with bread from Tashkent. This path is dangerous - gangs of Basmachi and White Cossacks are rampant here. The detachment commander, after a series of exhausting battles, decides to distract the gangs - and sets off on the wrong path a “false caravan” led by Commissioner Archman...

Once in an orphanage, nine-year-old Oraz finds a friend in the person of teacher Dovlat. In the hungry post-war years, Dovlat does everything to prevent children from suffering. One day, having caught the cook Izyumgul stealing, he brings trouble upon himself: in order to avoid being put on trial, Izyumgul spreads slanderous rumors about the teacher. Dovlat goes to prison, and the cook becomes the director of the orphanage. Forty years pass, and Oraz is invited to Izyumgul’s anniversary...

About the post-war years in a small town in the Urals, where fate brought the Kalmyk boy Jirgalu. He will soon have to face the hatred of war-bitten locals. Hungry times force the boy to look for money for food, not disdaining theft. But a friend appears, nicknamed Bee. Possessing the talent of a painter, Bee opens the world of beauty to her friend. But an early death cut short his existence on earth, leaving a permanent mark in Jirgala’s memory.

Vera and Zoya do not live well and are looking for a way to earn extra money. They are offered to clean the dacha after winter. At the dacha they face difficulties in paying for their work. Vera and Zoya react differently to this situation.

The film takes place in the early 50s in a small Siberian village where the paths and destinies of exiled Latvians, Kalmyks, and Russians crossed. The Kalmyk boy Ligi lives with his grandfather, who goes to the taiga, collects herbs, treats fellow villagers. One day Grandfather was arrested on false charges of murder and arson of the farm.

The story of how two lonely people met — a student Sanzhar, hiding from the authorities after student unrest, and baba Zina, who sheltered him in the house where she has been living since 1937.

In the vast expanses of Kalmyk, love is born between the young factory worker Naran, who came for sakman (cattle time), and the shepherd’s granddaughter Amulanga.