Galina Bulgakova

The film is dedicated to the heroines of Ostrovsky’s plays—wives, cooks, actresses, matchmakers. For the most part, these are composite characters, but many of them have real-life prototypes. The author was a keen observer and recorded everything interesting in his diary. This is how the gallery of images from his native Zamoskvorechye, where Ostrovsky was born, came into being. Later, after traveling along the Volga, portraits of residents from small towns along the river were added. Alexander Nikolaevich never overlooked the details. When the playwright described daily life, the details of clothing, or the manner of speaking of a character, the hero would literally come to life.

The action takes place during the Great Patriotic War in Belarus. The village in which the boy Kastus lived was located in the partisan zone. He soon made friends with the partisans, who became close people to him. The loss of his older friends was unexpected and difficult for Kastus...

Second half of the 1960s. Novikov, an employee of the apparatus, is a charming and successful functionary, married to the daughter of a former party leader. His life is a success — he has a status, a family, two children, as well as a young mistress — student Tanya, for whom he will never divorce... During the conflict at a youth construction site in Siberia, which he must repay, Novikov shows himself as an experienced dodger and a provocateur. Tanya's father, a war veteran and an honest worker, Ivan Dronov considers himself entitled to punish this scoundrel...

Dramatic, lyrical and production problems in the life of village people.