In a remote corner of northern Russia, postman Aleksey delivers retirement checks and letters, hunts down light bulbs, brings bread. Everyone knows and needs him, yet someone deprives him of his one means of transport, his boat. On top of that, the woman he loves leaves the unpromising region.

The veteran filmmaker Andrey Konchalovskiy collaborated with Tarkovsky in the early stages of his career and that shows in this lyrical, melancholic study of rural Russian life. This Venice Silver Lion Prize-winner continues a fine tradition of visually contemplative Russian cinema.