Natalia Vashchenko

A judge is devastated after the death of his wife and is neglectful of his children. His son befriends the children of a street beggar who live in an abandoned, derelict church. After his experience with his new friends, the young boy begins to feel sorry for his father and sympathizes with his loneliness.

On the eve of the 1905 revolution in a Ukrainian village, a liberal landowner refuses to distribute land to peasants, leading to an uprising. To protect his reputation, he calls in gendarmes, claiming he supports democracy but must care for his animals during the riot. Based on the novella of the same name by M. M. Kotsiubinsky.