Free Floating (2006)

"Free Floating" is a melodrama with elements of comedy about a young lad from an ordinary provincial town like many in Russia, with just one kindergarten, one school, one factory. As a result, one grows up here never facing the alternative as to what to choose, for everything is preordained. Leonid is an ordinary lad who, like his peers, goes to discos, dances with girls and picks fights with the local riff-raff later. Everything is going well for him, as his life is totally predictable. But one day the factory closes down and he becomes disoriented. For the first time ever, he is to make a choice on his own and think seriously about what he would like to do... His life begins to develop as he encounters a chain of different people. Leonid starts looking for a job and finds several without much effort, each apparently promising and offering a world of its own. But for different, seemingly haphazard, reasons Leonid won't stick to any job he seems initially attracted to. He only stays as an apprentice in a brigade of road workers, as the brigade-leader Roslov seems an affable and even extraordinary man. Yet, the idol turns out to be a virtuoso crook who cons everybody around him and does not shy away from stealing and doing illegal business. Leonid tries to oppose this semi-criminal, proving himself a hero. To punish him, Roslov and his brigade beat him within an inch of his life. And he loses yet another job... Leonid's search for his life's work is combined with his first love. He comes across his former classmate nicknamed Piggy, and the first romance in their lives flares up - and flickers out in the sudden coming of autumn. Summer, love, and job are all gone, and Leonid is almost in despair. But one day a quaint barge with wheels and a drive from an old tractor turns up out of nowhere and takes Leonid away from this town. Here on board of this homemade tub he works for peanuts by the riverside but he has finally succeeded in finding his life's work and acquiring real friends.