Anatoly Golik

The story of a writer who accidentally stumbles across the elixir of immortality and in doing so encounters the small group of immortals who have jealously guarded this secret for centuries. Once the writer has knowledge of this elixir, called 'Mafussalin', the group of five immortals give him a stark choice: either join them, with the price of admission, being a duel to the death between the immortal who accidentally gave the secret away or death at the hands of the group. As the writer makes up his mind, sometimes aided and at other times opposed by the ever shifting alliances from within the group, we discover how the other immortals became this way, their true ages and what they have done with this 'gift'.

Doctor Nechayev lives by the concerns of his patients. This is a man of remarkable mental qualities and a highly qualified specialist in cardiology, but he is completely unadapted to life in everyday life and imperceptibly lost himself, did not do much of what he dreamed of and did not understand the selfless love of a young student Alya. The doctor gradually puts an end to his hopes and dreams – they fade into the background, supplanted by work in the hospital.

There were three sisters — Vera, Nadezhda and Lyubov. Vera, having survived unhappy love, goes to the monastery, where she gives birth to a child. The child dies, Vera commits suicide. Lyuba and grandmother attend church and maintain relations with priest Aleksandr. To Nadezhda that condemns their religiosity, it seems that Lyuba is in love with father Aleksandr. She comes home to him and demands that he stop dating Lyuba. However, it turns out that Aleksandr is in love with Nadezhda. Knowing him better, she reciprocates him, facing a difficult choice, Aleksandr breaks with religion.

The main character of the film is an ordinary chauffeur Pavel, whose life is not very successful, despite the fact that he is a very kind and fair person. Finally, fate smiles at Pavel, he meets true love, but more and more tests fall to his lot, as if testing a simple guy for strength.

The film is about the hot war summer of 1944. A group of several gun crews defends a tiny bridgehead on the right bank of the Dniester. The fates of the main characters: the front-line soldier-battalion commander Babin, the young lieutenant Motovilov, the nurse Rita Tamashova and the rank-and-file gunners, soldiers, among whom are brave people, faint-hearted and scoundrels, unnoticed heroes, are shown in a setting of several hours of peaceful life before another violent attack of the enemy, after which not everyone will survive...