Sergey Yakovlev

Near a gray and unnamed city is The Zone, an alien place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers.

Two Soviet partisans depart their starving band on a short march to a nearby farm to get supplies. The Germans have reached the farm first, so the pair must go on a journey deep into occupied territory, a voyage that will also take them deep into their souls. (imdb)

Kruglikov has spent many years exiled in a hamlet in Jakutsk, in remote eastern Siberia, where he keeps a post house, hiring horses to travellers. While sheltering from the bitter wind howling outside his inn, Kruglikov recalls his youth and his reason for being there when asked by some passing guests. He was sent there as punishment for shooting an old general who openly started courting Kruglikov's beautiful fiancé and humiliating him. (imdb)