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There Was A Lad won the Grand Prize at the Festival for Films for Youth and Children in Venice, a prize from the All-Union Film Festival, and this very popular film marked beloved Russian actor/writer Vassily Shukshin's directorial debut. The story is about Pashka Kolokolnikov (Leonid Kuravlev), a nice, good-humored, rather ordinary lad from the Altai, a mountainous region in southern Siberia. When the car he is driving breaks down, a kindly truck driver gives him a lift. As they travel along, Pashka tries to help out wherever possible. In his eagerness to be of use, he even butts in where he is not particularly welcome. In one instance, he tries to play the matchmaker between the driver, a lonely man, and a mature woman who also catches a lift in the truck. Pashka's good humor is so powerful that they forgive him even for this, and when one of his many adventures calls for heroic action on his part, he does not disappoint.