Aleksandr Špilevoj

The beginning of the 90's. Lithuania just became independent, so there is a lot of chaos in political, ecnomical and criminal structures. The every day life more or less is being controlled by the criminal gangs, who feel indestructible by the fear of citizens and the helplessness of government.

Based on real-life events that took place in Lithuania at the end of the 20th century. At a time when criminal groups prevailed and corruption was rampant in the authorities, the biggest source of income for Lithuanian gangs was smuggling cigarettes. At the heart of the series is a gang called the "Princes" who clash with other groups and authorities in Lithuania's brutal underworld at the time..

The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find themselves on opposite sides of the strict code of honour of the ‘honest criminal’ brotherhood.

Radio Free Europe, BBC, and Voice of America can only rarely get through the Iron Curtain and Soviet mufflers to Lithuania, a country torn by a war between the local resistance movement and the Soviet regime that is forced onto Lithuanian people by bayonets of the Russian army. Everybody who tries to resist the Soviet rule is either terrorized or executed or exiled to Siberia. He is one of the local high-school students who witness the local armed resistance to the Soviet occupation and ultimately decide to join it by taking a gun into their hands. He collects documents and all possible kinds of evidence that prove daunting crimes of the Kremlin. He soon becomes a legend among his peers. To girls, he is John Wayne the Hollywood Icon. Guys see him as an insurmountable obstacle and an invincible rival in matters of love.