Gulya Kerimova

A young boy is taken from his cozy existence in the city to live with his grandfather in the wild countryside of Central Asia.

...Komsomol member Begench, who served in the army, and his fellow villager Vellek, whom they met in the city, return to the village. The kulaks, led by Kuiki and his son Cherkez, run everything in the village. They are turning people against the collective farm, sabotaging the sowing campaign. The Basmachi kill the chairman of the collective farm. Residents of the village rise up to fight. In the battle with the Basmachi, many of them die. Nevertheless, the supporters of the collective farm system are victorious and go out into the field in the spring.

Based on Turkmen folk tales. Life in the world was bad for poor Alty-aga. He had no children, the wagon was thin, and the cauldron was empty. But after meeting the tiny boy Yartygulak, his life changed...

The film takes place in Turkmenistan during the Second World War. Here, at a small railway siding, chance brings together Zina, whose husband disappeared at the front, Nadya from besieged Leningrad, and locomotive depot driver Andrei, who dreams of the front and the front line. The driver, having fallen in love with Zina, immediately proposes to her. But Zina does not consider herself a widow - and refuses her beloved. After which - to spite the whole world - the hero marries the silent Nadya and soon receives an assignment to the front. While accompanying a train with fuel, Andrei dies during the bombing of a railway junction, never having been to the front.

Once in an orphanage, nine-year-old Oraz finds a friend in the person of teacher Dovlat. In the hungry post-war years, Dovlat does everything to prevent children from suffering. One day, having caught the cook Izyumgul stealing, he brings trouble upon himself: in order to avoid being put on trial, Izyumgul spreads slanderous rumors about the teacher. Dovlat goes to prison, and the cook becomes the director of the orphanage. Forty years pass, and Oraz is invited to Izyumgul’s anniversary...

After many years in a Soviet punishment camp Sadik returns home to his village. There he must learn that his brother, who has always been a conformist follower of the Soviet system, lives with the same conformism in post-communist Turkmenistan.