Yelena Popova

Two children living in a remote mining town in the distant wastes of Siberia in 1947, survive poverty and hardship through the warmth of their friendship and a shared sense of humour. (imdb)

Valerka, the hero of "Bouge pas, Meurs, Ressucite", has grown up. Expelled from a vocational-training school and knowing he has partially ruined his mother's life he leaves in a voyage of initiation that takes him to Nilolayevsk where he is hoping to find an aunt he has never seen. He discovers a world of grown-ups and daily concerns. He goes back over his life and reviews the lies and treachery that have hallmarked it. He puts his childhood and adolescence behind him as he grows into adulthood. (unifrance.org)

A Soviet battalion crossing the Dnieper River to liberate Kiev from the Germans, 1943. (imdb)