Nominee for the Golden Globe Awards, in the category "Best Foreign Language Film"
Plot synopsis
The main story takes place in 1945, just after end
of the Second World War, in a small settlement in Siberia. Former
servicemen and concentration camp prisoners work there as drivers
of the fast steam locomotives that haul timber. They organize
races among themselves, and now that the fighting is over, these
races seem to them to be their only chance to demonstrate to
themselves, and to others, their right to be a winner, to be human
and to love and be loved. However, where a woman’s love is at
stake, neither races, nor steam engines, will decide the outcome.