In 2016, Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin cre­at­ed the nation­al guards, whose legal task is to ensure public order, the fight against ter­ror­ism and extrem­ism. In fact, this organ­i­sa­tion is per­son­al­ly sub­or­di­nate to Putin and is engaged in the sup­pres­sion of those who dis­agree with his regime. The train­ing for this elite corps starts in the boys childhood.

The film­mak­ers end up in a closed school as pho­tog­ra­phers, where they tried to cap­ture not only the faces of the guys, but also what was hap­pen­ing in the back­ground. The film is cre­at­ed from frag­ments of phras­es, obser­va­tions, and faces.

This film is about boy­hood and man­hood, obe­di­ence and strength - and an exem­plary insti­tu­tion which does not like to be filmed. That is why it became a sneaky film in which the voices of the back­ground often tell us more than the pic­tures we see.

Direc­tor & Script: Alex Evstigneev
Pro­duc­tion: Alex Kozmenko
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Alex Evstigneev, Liza Popova
Edit­ing: Sasha Gusarova
Sound Edit­ing: Michael Tyukalin
Com­po­si­tion: Iliya Nasirov
Con­tact: ekaterina@eastwood.agency