An Independent Life

This is the second installment of a threepart series of autobiographical films about the directors life The first which won various awards for its maker was entitled Zamri Oumi Voskresni and was later retitled Zari Umri Vokresni FreezeDieCome to Life At the end of that film set at the conclusion of World War II the young Valerka was striving hard to overcome the inertia of just getting by along with his sometime friend Galiya In this one he is adjusting to Galiyas death and is back in school and is living with his mother a prostitute After a girl at the school is found to have been gangraped the headmaster chooses Valerka to be one of the scapegoats though he had nothing to do with the deed The punishment seems mild enough he was simply expelled from school However after quarrelling with his mother about the incident he takes to the road and discovers a society so bleak degraded and hopeless that it is a wonder he remained alive