Semyon Dorin

Popular football player Anton Kovalev, after spending two years in prison for a drunken brawl in a cafe, is released. The offense blocked the successful career of Kovalev, who was previously the captain of the Russian national team. The reputation of a "downed pilot" does not allow him to continue his favorite business and get a prestigious job. The head of the center for difficult teenagers, Herman, who once raised Anton, offers him a place in the center to prepare difficult children for the local Olympics. Out of desperation, Kovalev agrees to the offer, but he does not even imagine how difficult it will be to find a common language with the guys, and what an important place they can take in his life.

A talented doctor, a rich slacker, a good mother and other people whose life looks perfect only from the outside are in an eternal search for an answer to the question of what happiness is.

Mara, an ancient pagan spirit, hunts a group of teenagers, taking their body parts to be reborn. A disillusioned and desperate investigator has to face his deepest fears to save the teenagers.

The movie is based on Zakhar Prilepin's autobiographical novella "The Forest". The story focuses on the father and son who spend every summer in the village of Isttsy, where they raft down the local Istya River. They have done so for several years, but this time things go astray: a harmless adventure turns into a real disaster. Much later the grown-up son remembers his father through the lens of the past years.