AllMovie

In this cutting though sometimes slow-paced study of children and their ability to be cruel, director Rolan Bykov focuses the eye of the camera on the experiences of a young girl, Lena (Kristina Orbakaite). When the 12-year-old Lena moves into a new town with her grandfather, they are both ostracized because they are different. He is crotchety and eccentric, a collector of old paintings, and she is too shy and anxious to please the usual friends. When she is blamed for something she did not do, the children decide to go after her with a vengeance -- and that is when the cruelty escalates. As Lena begins to get some backbone to withstand her tormentors, fate is waiting in the wings to help her out just a little.