Larisa Mekhanoshina

1943 year. Alma-Ata. The hero of the film is a young Michurin fruit grower who revives a medicinal apple variety and investigates a strange crime. The script was written based on the book by Mikhail Zoshchenko "Before the Sunrise".

The entire family of a 6-year-old Anna dies in the mass coordinated execution of Jews. The mother covers up Anna with her own body, and the girl miraculously survives. For the next few hundred days Anna hides in the disused chimney at the Nazi Commandant's office. From her shelter she watches as life passes her by until the village is liberated from the Nazi. In these inhuman conditions Anna not only survives but keeps her humanity. Many factors help her: memories from the life swept away by war, the cultural foundations laid by the parents and a friend who saves her from loneliness.