Galina Teplinskaya

The film is based on the eponymous book, written by two former street gangsters - Grigori Belykh and Leonid Panteleyev. Film is set in the 1920s St. Petersburg, Russia. Streets of the city are full of the homeless boys. They are caught to be raised and educated at the correction school named after Dostoevsky. The boys are street smart and difficult. But the faculty stands up to the challenge. The teaches are being devoted and caring, and gradually win the respect of the most difficult kids. The school director Vicknixor is a refined intellectual, who becomes a role model for the boys.

Leonid Pleshcheyev returned from the war blind. Against his will, he became a dependent. He drowns his grief in unrestrained drunkenness, thereby tormenting his wife Mariya and his teenage son Lyonka. Mariya finally decides to take her son and leave for Altai, but the boy runs away and returns to his father. So, together, they eke out a half-miserable existence until Grigoriy Shalagin, Pleshcheyev's longtime friend, returns from the army. It is he who awakens in Leonid the extinct self-esteem and pride of a soldier. Pity aside, he helps him get back to work.

Inspired by the life of Varvara Asenkova, a 19th-century actress who earned great acclaim on St. Petersburg stage before her death at the age of 24.

Andrei Krutikov was the first child born in the settlement of the hydroelectric station workers. The residents of the settlement named a street after him. Years passed, and the young city grew. Andrei grew up to be a mischievous, lying, and wild storyteller. But then a new boy, Borya Skalov, appeared in his class. Unintentionally, Andrei started to imitate the serious and responsible Boris, and he didn't even notice how his life began to change.

How can anyone take a person seriously when his last name is Zaychik (Little Hare). Everyone can manipulate and make fun of him. And Zaychik never strikes back just because he is too shy. But to the surprise of everyone love makes a lion out of little hare.

Victor Ace loves to sing, but is forced to become a car mechanic. Lisa dreams of urban life, but lives in a village. Kostya Lastochkin is an excellent mechanic, but he serves in the army and comes home only on vacation.

A finding of an old briefcase in a ruined house in 1970s leads to a treasure, hidden in the 1920s.

Man is trying to find simple human happiness. He decides for himself the question of what this happiness consists of - wealth, high social status, or something else.