Leonid Veitkov

Once, before Christmas, Ivan was predicted to meet a foreign beauty. Forest sorceress for the kindness of a young man gave him a magical portrait of a Chinese girl named Xiao Qing. Her beauty struck Ivan in the heart, and he fell in love with no memory. Suddenly, the portrait came to life, the girl told the young man an amazing story. It turns out that the evil sorcerer took her from her parents against her will to make her his wife. The girl’s brother painted a portrait, where the soul of Xiao Qing moved, and the villain got only a barely living body, an insensitive doll. Now the sorcerer is looking for this portrait to regain the girl’s soul...

This movie is based on a novel by Boris Vasiliev and describes life in a small Russian provincial town in 1940 - one year before Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The main characters of the film are ordinary Soviet high school students. They study in the Soviet school, try to be correct and ideological Komsomol activists. But not always the “correctness” suggested by the teachers coincides with the inner convictions of young souls - it is difficult for them to come to terms with the fact that their relatives and loved ones are suddenly “enemies of the people”.

A graduate of the village school Pyotr Gorokhov from the village of Dyadkovo comes to Moscow to enter a prestigious economic university; he succeeds, albeit literally by a miracle. However, Petya was always helped out by chance and mysticism. Compared to other students (mostly Muscovites and residents of other big cities), this guy from the province stands out sharply — both in manners, in reprimand, and in behavior. Accustomed to defend their principles to the end of Gorokhov was called Balamut (Troublemaker). Nevertheless, in the student community, he quickly mastered and became a leader. Everything would be fine, but he has two problems — unrequited love for the dark-skinned beauty from Cuba and English...