Bitter Taste of Salt

USSR, the Thaw, 1956... While bright communist futures are being built in large cities, a real struggle for survival against hunger, cold, and the harsh realities of simple life continues in the countryside.

In a village in Vologda, after her father's departure from the family, the girl Nina is forced to grow up too soon. Every day becomes a test of resilience and spirit in an attempt to protect her family from an enemy that has drawn too close to her home. Meanwhile, in the endless steppes of Kazakhstan, a boy named Vitya, whose dreams of a life full of heroism and courage are shattered by chance, faces a difficult choice between the exhausting labor of a mechanic and the dangerous temptations of the criminal world.

To break or to stand firm? To surrender to circumstances or to choose one's own bright future?