Chary Ishankuliev

1948 year. The hero of the film Serdar recalls his childhood, which he spent in post-war Ashgabat. At that time it was truly an international city, united by the bitterness of military losses and the happiness of the Victory that had happened. However, the subject of memories, alas, is far from nostalgic feelings. Indeed, on that day, the Ashgabat earthquake, tragic in its consequences, took place, which claimed the lives of two-thirds of the city's residents.

The plot of the philosophical parable, the meaning of which boils down to the simple idea that "people are animals", develops in three instructive directions: the story of the shepherd waiting for death, who once did not meet his mother, who came to him from a distant village; the second story is about a young man who went to the mountains away from the worldly world, and finally, the third story is about a sheep trying to save its child from the fate that was destined for it.

After many years in a Soviet punishment camp Sadik returns home to his village. There he must learn that his brother, who has always been a conformist follower of the Soviet system, lives with the same conformism in post-communist Turkmenistan.

To help the starving peasants of 1918 Turkestan, the Soviet government sends a caravan with bread from Tashkent. This path is dangerous - gangs of Basmachi and White Cossacks are rampant here. The detachment commander, after a series of exhausting battles, decides to distract the gangs - and sets off on the wrong path a “false caravan” led by Commissioner Archman...

18th-century Turkmenistan. By the will of the rulers of the Khanate of Khiva, the once-blooming land was turned into a desert. In order to unite the scattered nomadic tribes and make his people independent, the elder of one of the tribes, Khodjanepes, secretly travels to St. Petersburg to seek help from Peter I. The tsar, who was interested in strengthening the southern borders, sent Prince Cherkassky's expeditionary force to Turkmenistan, but he made a grave mistake. After listening to the Khiva Khan, who had heard about Khodjanepes's visit to the Russian capital, the tsar divided the expedition into two groups, giving Khodjanepes an excellent opportunity to deal with his soldiers.

The film is dedicated to the boys who grew up during the war. The main characters are the milkmaid Bahar and the village postman Merdan. They are not even nine years old, but they know that every day they live and every good deed they do brings them closer to Victory Day and the day their fathers return.