Vakhtang Jajanidze

Thirteen-year-old Mariam lives with her father, Rezo, in the poor slums of Tbilisi. They share a one room shack. Mariam and Rezo are barely making a living, being forced to steal at times. Along with the struggle against poverty, Mariam also has to deal with the facts of becoming a woman and the fear that her father would betray her in order to make money.

Time has stopped in a little, almost deserted industrial city Chiatura. People, tired of everyday struggling for survival, keep their inertial meaningless existence. In a little, isolated house at the edge of the city live two elderly sisters. Lily (60 years old) works as a Cableway conductor and guides workers from the city to the factory every day. Tatyana (64 years old) is unemployed and mainly is busy doing housework. Despite poor living conditions, their micro world had been idyllic, before Lily got a chance to leave Chiatura, moving in another city with her daughter. On a farewell day tension rises between the sisters. Tatyana still hopes and believes that Lily will change her mind and will not abandon her. At the same time she realizes that it`s the last chance for her to escape from swamp and spend her last years with her daughter.