Nikolay Morozov has been both a revolutionary and a terrorist in his long life. Sentenced to a lifetime of hard labour, he spent 30 years in a tsarist prison. His hair had long turned grey by the time the Second World War broke out, but when he realised his country needed him he volunteered for the army. Nikolay was 87 at the time.
The year is 1930. In a small Tartar village, a woman named Zuleikha watches as her husband is murdered by communists. Zuleikha herself is sent into exile, enduring a horrendous train journey to a remote spot on the Angara River in Siberia. Conditions in the camp are tough, and many of her group do not survive the first difficult winter. As she gradually settles into a routine, Zuleikha starts to get to know her companions. The eclectic group includes a rather dotty doctor, an artist who paints on the sly, and Ignatov, Zuleikha's husband's killer. A screen version of the best-selling novel by Guzel Yakhina.
Moscow. 60s. Young lawyer starts working in one of the most pow- erful legal services in USSR called Filial No 1. She needs to prove that her presence there is not accidental.
