AllMovie

A troubled young boy escapes his bleak reality by dreaming of a better life where he's strong enough to fend off his tormentors and loved by a beautiful girl in this brutal Russian take on François Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Despised by his cold-hearted stepfather and harassed by bullies in school, the depressed 14-year-old boy finds his future looking grim when he's shipped off to a nightmarish reform school. There, he loses himself in vivid fantasies of a normal, stable life. Meanwhile, if he could only summon the courage to stand up for himself, the frightened boy may finally be able to take control of his own fate, and turn his dreams into reality.