Leonid Vodolazov

A comedy about Krushchev's 'Virgin Lands' project, to transform the barren and inhospitable spaces of the vast Soviet Union into fertile agricultural plains. A classically Socialist-Realist narrative of an individual's 're-education'. Zhenia, a hapless idler, arrives with a band of enthusiastic young Konsomol members to build a new town in the steppe. Although his dream, like that of all the young participants, is 'to become a tractor driver and a hero', he isn't prepared to work for the honour.

A family of collective farmers arrives in Kazakhstan. The husband, who had persuaded his wife to come in search of an easier life, is frightened by the very first difficulties and goes back home. But the woman stays, because she has fallen in love with a local man. There are no optimistic declarations—only a timid hope that she will take root in this new place, together with the birch trees she planted near the house.