Andrey Stapran

A fairy tale about a conceited young man and a young woman with a tyrannical step-mother, who must overcome magical trials in order to be together.

Alice-type Soviet girl, named Olya meets her counterpart Yalo, while looking into the mirror. Yalo is an absolute antipode to Olya: where Olya is precise and neat, Yalo is absent-minded, careless, etc. The explicit plot relates to Olya learning to see herself differently, but this occurs through an experience in the Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors which serves as a mechanism for commenting on the ability of a society to manufacture a false reality.

The 1950s. The construction of the Karakum Canal is underway in Turkmenistan. The fate of this large construction site is closely linked to the fate of many of the film's characters: correspondent Koryshev, who reveals the lies of his colleague Zurabov's ostentatious, slanderous articles; talented young engineer Karabash, whose advanced construction methods are supported by the construction site chief Ermasov; embittered old engineer Khorev, who, out of envy for Karabash, writes denunciations to the Central Committee of the party against him and Ermasov..