A shell-shocked Afghanistan war hero named Ivan Skryabin (Mikhail Skryabin) spends his days stoking the fire in a giant coal furnace. When he isn’t tending the flames, he keeps busy with other activities. He works on a historical novel. His adult daughter Sasha (Aida Tumutova) comes to visit. Local kids come to gaze at the flames. Gangsters, including a former Army sergeant (Aleksandr Mosin) and a sniper known as Bison (Yuri Matveyev), drop by to add special kindling to the fire.

Famous actors and ordinary people from all walks of life read stories from a book describing the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II.

Every day, they steal your strength, your emotions, your love. We call them the Shadow. Work like us - to deliver them back to the Dark World. Impending disaster, and humanity can be at the mercy of darkness ... And only we can keep the balance

The head of the prison camp is friends with the manager, the head of a criminal gang. An evacuated woman with a child arrives in the city, and the manager falls in love with her.

With a brother dedicated to punk rock stardom at any cost and a drunken father who chases skirt between robotic dancing lessons from the TV, young Senka stands as much chance of nurture as the hero of Truffaut's 400 Blows. The amazing thing about Ogorodnikov's film is that it was made in Russia. Clearly, plenty of Soviet teenies share the nihilistic feelings of their Western counterparts, and the extensive footage of safety-pin chic at concerts perhaps points to a sound export instinct on the director's part. Senka's brother Kostya is under pressure from Howmuch, a very heavy rocker, to steal a synthesiser from the Community Centre, so to protect him Senka steals it himself. The story occupies little more space than the music, but the performances are splendid enough to lodge Senka's predicament in the heart.

The legitimate heir to the throne in exile and the son of a murdered rebel — what do they have in common? Everyone has their own goal: one dreams of taking the throne and restoring his family to its former glory, the other - to take revenge on the murderer of his father, who serves the usurpers. Young men enter into a large-scale struggle for power and honor, in which those who seemed to be friends can betray, and former enemies can turn into allies. In order to achieve the goal, both the prince and the rebel's son will have to risk the most valuable and make the main choice in their lives — to go the preordained way or to oppose fate itself.

A woman living a difficult life suddenly finds love.

There is a commotion in the small village on Lake Peipsi – the wedding is tomorrow. Masha and Ivan are young, beautiful, and everyone wants the wedding to be a success. Only everyone knows that Masha does not love Ivan, but Peter, who is serving time for poaching. He went to jail and told her, "Don't wait." But when Peter finds out that Masha is expecting a child from him, he escapes from prison and suddenly appears in his native village just before the wedding. And suddenly Masha realizes a few hours before the wedding that she will not be able to live with Ivan.

The life story of two fellow villagers in the period 1920–50s.

Having entered the institute, the hero of the film, along with his new comrades, goes to the village "for potatoes". A month spent in the "open air" not only fills the life of a spoiled urban youth with interesting acquaintances and impressions, but also gives him his first love.