Vasili Guzov

In the early days of the Great Patriotic War old Kuzmich from the village of Kurakino guesses that a long war lies ahead. As the village falls under German occupation and repressions intensify, he keeps aloof, arousing suspicions. Following the execution of fellow villagers and accusations of betrayal, Kuzmich agrees to serve as a guide for the German detachment, ostensibly to get a horse and save his family. In reality, however, he is planning a sacrificial deception: through his grandson Vaska, he conveys information about the enemy's route to the Soviet troops. At the critical moment, Kuzmich leads the German mountain troopers into a trap, repeating the feat of Ivan Susanin. At the cost of his own life the old man leads the enemy to perdition, becoming a symbol of the people's resistance.

In 1942, Red Army officer Nikolai Kiselyov receives orders to evacuate over 200 Jewish women, children, and elderly men facing brutality and death in Nazi-occupied Belarus. These exhausted, starving, terrified and bereaved people, deeply scarred by the horrors they have witnessed, must trek hundreds of kilometers along forest paths to regain hope of survival and faith in the future.