Stay in the Saddle

A village boy awaits his father's return from the front. Though he doesn't yet know the alphabet, he begins composing letters and enrolls in school early to learn to write. He believes the Moon Witch — a figure from a fairytale — is behind all the misfortunes of war. In his dreams, he battles her on the moon as she casts black letters — death notices — down to Earth...

During the second world war two friends work at a remote railway station in the steppes. When one dies the other's request to bury him according to Islamic rituals in a sacred place is denied by the Soviet authorities, who use that place for rocket testing.

To avoid severe punishment for desertion, a man hides in the mountains near his native village.