Live and Remember

The Great Patriotic War pulls men from Atamanovka, leaving Nastya and many other women to keep the village running. She lives with her elderly in-laws and works on the collective farm and lumberyard while husbands march to the front. The community braces for more hardship as the fighting continues.

Andrey Guskov serves at multiple fronts, first in a ski battalion near Moscow, then in reconnaissance near Smolensk, and later in a howitzer battery after being wounded at Stalingrad. His service involves shifting roles and long separations from home. These experiences frame the family’s fate after the war.

In October 1944, Andrey is discharged from a hospital in Novosibirsk. He makes a brief, unauthorized attempt to return home, but quickly realizes he cannot rejoin his unit in time, forcing him to desert. This decision marks the start of his hidden life away from home.

Andrey hides in an abandoned cabin in the taiga, confiding only in Nastya about his presence. He warns her not to reveal his whereabouts, fearing dire consequences for both of them. The couple's secret sets the stage for the tragedy to come.

Nastya becomes pregnant, a long-awaited joy amid hardship. The pregnancy draws suspicious glances and whispers from her in-laws and the village, who accuse her of infidelity. The stigma isolates her and strains their fragile quiet.

Rumors intensify as the community treats Nastya's pregnancy as a betrayal of her absent husband. The in-laws and neighbors look for someone to blame, piling pressure on Nastya and challenging the family's honor.

With Victory Day nearing, the village gathers to celebrate and remember the fallen, mentioning Andrey among those lost without knowing Nastya's secret. The air is thick with pride and grief, but unspoken tension threads through the crowd. The revelation that Andrey might still be alive remains hidden.

Officer Burdak leads a police investigation, trafficking a group of men to follow Nastya and uncover Andrey's whereabouts. The pursuit intensifies as rumors spread and suspicion falls on the pregnant wife. She becomes the focal point of a widening search.

To evade the authorities, Nastya rows across the river to warn her husband in hiding. The act demonstrates her resolve to keep their family safe, even at great personal risk. Yet the effort brings the tragic end closer.

Nastya's desperate bid ends when she drowns in the river, a shock that shakes the village. The community mourns her, recognizing that the relentless pursuit and suspicion surrounding her played a part in her death. The tragedy leaves a lasting wound on Atamanovka.

In the decades after the war, Andrey remains in the nearly abandoned Atamanovka, living a quiet, solitary life. He rarely leaves, and the memory of Nastya and the war's toll lingers in the silent streets. The village around him slowly changes as time passes.

On the 20th anniversary of Victory Day in 1965, a beacon keeper stops briefly to wish Andrey well. The small gesture underscores how much time has passed and how the scars of war endure. The image of the lone survivor living in an almost empty village lingers in the memory of the community.