101st Kilometer

This partly autobiographical film draws on the reality of the not-too-distant past. Its title refers to a regulation known as ‘the 101st kilometre from Moscow.’ Released prisoners and troublemakers had to follow a special regime limiting their movement to the aforementioned distance from the capital. The town of Orechovo-Zuyevo is on this borderline. Middle-schooler Lyonya, fed up with the general hypocrisy and all-pervading fear which remains even after Stalin’s death, falls in with former criminals. He is impressed by their solidarity and the peculiar laws they use to run their community. He takes risks without suspecting that the vigilance of the authorities hasn’t weakened even after the removal of Beria. His neglectful relationship with his parents changes when his father confesses that he must get out of Moscow and leave his intellectual profession. After this discovery and his first contact with danger Lyonya understands there is nothing left for him either but to take off somewhere far away from his city and try to find out the truth about himself. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)