An adaptation of a story by Andrei Platonov, this short film by Larisa Shepitko was created as part of a 1967 omnibus film entitled BEGINNING OF AN UNKNOWN ERA, commissioned to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution. Soviet authorities deemed the depiction of the early Bolsheviks in Shepitko’s entry too critical, and it was shelved upon completion. With the help of Shepitko’s widower, Elem Klimov, the film was finally screened in 1987.