A naive student walks into a snake pit of Soviet college politics. What could go wrong?
Pavel Voskoy, a first-year student at a teacher training college, accidentally finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of complicated relationships between a group of students (notorious hooligans) and the college rector. Pavel's social inexperience and naivety lead to unfortunate consequences.
Acting
Feklistov's performance as Pavel — painfully, authentically out of his depth.
Direction
Lyrchikov captures claustrophobic Soviet interiors as psychological pressure cookers.
Director
Nikolai Lyrchikov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during glasnost, this film quietly dismantles Soviet educational hierarchies that had gone unexamined for decades. The 'snitch' archetype carried particular weight in a culture of informants.
The hooligans are never fully villainized — their violence is a response to the same system crushing Pavel, making the rector the true antagonist.
SU
