Forest Film

Vanya is a salesperson in the Hunter and Fisher shop. Kristina is a ballerina at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre. Kristina jokingly calls Vanya a "retro person" for her love of everything old. She herself is a modern person, nostalgia for the romantic past is not characteristic of her. And yet, these two dissimilar people have something in common - the fear of loneliness and the obsession with starting a family.

The Kazakh village Karatas has long been subjugated by a criminal boss called Poshaev. He provides housing and jobs for the locals but will ruthlessly execute anyone who dares to oppose him. This is the lesson the pauper Arzu is about to learn first-hand—his wife Karina has informed the police about the crimes that are taking place there. Arzu is a cripple; now he must raise his little daughter alone. He is so helpless and grief-stricken that he doesn’t even seem to be contemplating revenge. Poshaev takes him under his wing and offers him the position of a guard at a building site. Soon Arzu has a chance to prove his loyalty, and he becomes Poshaev’s right hand. But where do Arzu’s real loyalties lie—with his boss or with the idea of justice?

Masked figures with machine guns march into the secondary school in Karatas, take the pupils hostage, and execute one of them. They make no demands. Silent terror is their modus operandi. Seeing as the army will take two days to arrive due to a snowstorm, maths teacher Tazshi decides to assemble his own assault team: his ex-wife, the gym teacher, the cowardly school principal, an alcoholic night watchman, the village idiot, and an incompetent chief of police.

Tanya, a young educator, accompanies twelve teenagers to a theatre festival in Sochi under the supervision of Maria Genrikhovna, an experienced head teacher. Initially, there's little sympathy between the two teachers. However, they discover a deeper bond in much more fundamental things: aversion to marching in formation and other forms of officialism. Their ability to find joy even in challenging situations unites them.

Kira is 36. She works at the Pulkovo Airport call centre and lives with her younger sister Vera and her daughters. A couple years ago, their mother kicked the sisters out of the house and later disappeared. It's time for Kira to accept that her mother is dead and move on: get the death certificate, claim her inheritance and start living separately from her sister and nieces. A new life awaits her. But Kira does not want to change anything and dreams only of her mother coming back.