Aleksandr Sidelnikov

Based on V. Belov's short story "River Bends".

The film is dedicated to the memory of Valery Borisovich Agafonov (1941-1984), an outstanding performer of Russian romances.

The theme of the film is: the peasant question in Russia in the 20th century. Stolypin's reforms, the activities of food detachments, the New Economic Policy and the rise of agriculture. Collectivization and its stages. Arrests of "kulaks", famine of the early 30s. The repressions against Chayanov, Kondratiev, and Markov, Soviet economists, representatives of the "Russian School of Economics" who advocated cooperation. Mass repression. Reflections on the future of the village, on farm (farmer) agriculture. Eyewitness accounts of those events.

Ordinary rural residents of the Vologda region — an engineer, a locomotive driver, a poet, emigrants from Argentina, and a former soldier of the Vlasov army — speak about what unites them. They share their vision of Russia and its fate. They talk about Russian people and Russian towns, about struggles and hopes. And they speak of love — boundless and all-powerful.

The authors of the film try to explain that in order to solve global problems, particularly economic ones, it is necessary to follow not only a dry "how-to-do-it" approach, but also to listen to the voice of reason. Through two examples, the authors of the film illustrate the consequences of decisions made by people who did not consider the potential irreversible outcomes. The authors and participants of the film compare these individuals to computers, which are mechanical machines that lack a soul or heart and make decisions based solely on the information provided to them.