Vitaliy Medvedev

A movie about the gas mine workers in the scorching hot desert of Karakum, Turkmenistan.

The war years. Young Batyr takes on the responsibility of caring for his mother and newborn sister. The boy's father, a renowned dutar player in the village, has been killed in action. Batyr decides to master the complex art of dutar playing. However, with the ongoing war, there is no time for music schools in the rear. Despite the challenges, the determined young boy conquers the instrument, and his mother is overjoyed to see him grow into a responsible adult.

In the summer of 1918, the situation in Transcaspia was especially difficult. The Menshevik government led by Funtikov seized power. Only the fortress city of Kushka remains Soviet. The garrison went over to the Bolshevik side. Large reserves of weapons and ammunition are concentrated in the fortress, which especially attracts the Mensheviks and the British who help them. The commander of the garrison, the former tsarist general Vostrosablin, decides not to surrender the fortress. To do this, he and Commissar Morgunov are developing a defense plan. White Colonel Zykov, with the support of the Basmachi and the British, hopes to take Kushka. But the tough confrontation between the parties ends with the victory of the defenders of the fortress.

Based on the play of the same name by M. Shatrov.