The Thief

Autumn of 1952. Six year old Sanya and his young mother Katya are going by train across cold and starving Russia still struggling to recover from World War II. Like many others in postwar Europe, a young window and her fatherless child, Katya and Sanya strive for at least a bearable life, which for them means finding shelter and enough bread to eat. A handsome and gallant young officer in uniform named Tolyan boards the train at one of the stations and is immediately attracted to Katya. At night half-awake Sanya sees his mother and the officer embracing on the carriage platform. Of course, he doesn't like it, but on the other hand the officer allows Sanya to play with a real pistol... The boy is looking though the window on the fields and forests drifting by in a haze, on the goods trains passing by, and he dreams of his father standing on a platform - a soldier who died of the front wounds before Sanya's birth...