Anatoliy Otradnov

Mishka Yaponchik was a Ukrainian gangster, Jewish, lived in Odessa at the beginning of the XX century, the military leader of two thousand of gangsters and the prototype of Benia Krik in The "Odessa Tales" by Soviet Jewish writer Isaak Babel. Born Moisei Vinnitsky, Yaponchik ("the Japanese") was an exceptional and eccentric character. Hailed as the next Robin Hood, he established his own code of conduct forbidding the robbing of the poor and professional classes.

The film is dedicated to the first steps of mankind on the path of space exploration and direct the fate of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The main motif - the fight for the right to be first: the competition in the first cosmonaut, competition in missile technology, the confrontation of superpowers - the USSR and the USA. In the first group of astronauts were selected from three thousand fighter pilots across the country. In twenty of the legendary got the best of the best. Which of them will fly first, no one knew. In this way, had to contend not only with the pull of the earth ...