AllMovie

Set against the backdrop of the Soviet Union's first satellite launch, director Alexei Uchitel's quiet drama tells the tale of a cook and amateur boxer living in a small port town in the U.S.S.R. who dreams of better things to come. Konyok (Yevgeny Mironov) is a simple man with a simple outlook on life. As he and his waitress girlfriend Lara (Irina Pegova) closely follow the developments of the newly launched satellite, Konyok makes the acquaintance of Gherman (Yevgeny Tsyganov), a former political prisoner turned amateur boxer with an outsider attitude and a deep-rooted desire to defect to the West. Though Konyok and Gherman are two vastly different men, their mutual desire to explore a life outside of the confining borders of the motherland bind the unlikely pair as they ponder the infinite possibilities of an uncertain future.