Aleksandr Tovstonogov

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.

The action takes place in Odessa in the 1970s. Rosa, an Odessa woman, a mother and the head of the household, says goodbye to the Courtyard where her entire life unfolded, because her sons have decided to emigrate to Israel and take the elderly parents — her mother and father — with them. A staunch patriot and war veteran, Semen Margolin is ready to curse his children for such a betrayal, but with the help of his mother Rosa, he is somehow persuaded to make the move.

Based on the play of the same name by Aleksandr Kravtsov, staged by the Moscow Drama Theatre named after K.S. Stanislavsky. The protagonists of the play — Darya Vlasyevna and Nikodimovna — share a room in a communal apartment. These women endured great hardship during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Yet throughout their lives, they preserved their faith in kindness and justice, always ready to help those in need.