The Red Snowball Tree 1974

Yegor Prokudin, Vasiliy Shukshin, a recidivist thief nicknamed Gorye, finishes his prison sentence and travels to a rural village to meet his pen pal Lyuba, Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina, who lives there. She is a stranger who wrote to him while he was behind bars.

At first, Yegor plans to lay low and keep out of trouble, hoping to steer clear of crime. Yet Lyuba’s warm, genuine affection clashes with the skepticism of her friends and the hostility she faces from some of the villagers’ parents, who doubt an ex-convict can truly belong.

In the nearby town, he spends freely on drinks and dances with strangers, and he wires money to a former associate. While he is away, Lyuba’s friends press her to reconcile with her ex-husband, convinced that Yegor’s presence could tempt trouble again and possibly rekindle old thefts.

When he returns, he and Lyuba settle in the village, and Yegor makes a deliberate choice to leave behind his criminal past. The villagers, who were wary at first, gradually come to see him as a part of their community and begin to trust him.

One day, the couple travels to another village, and Lyuba pretends to be a social worker to speak with an elderly woman who has not seen her son for 18 years. Yegor sits in a room wearing sunglasses as the two talk. After the visit, he tearfully reveals that the elder woman is his mother, Kudelikha Efimiya Bystrova in disguise, deepening the emotional complexity of his history.

Lyuba’s ex-husband and his friend arrive in the village and ignite a confrontation, but they retreat when they realize Yegor has no fear of them. With a renewed sense of purpose, Yegor takes a job as a tractor driver, savoring the quiet rhythm of rural life and his closeness to nature.

Soon after, Yegor’s former associate returns with money to lure him back to the city, but Yegor rejects the offer with a clear, defiant stand. Then five criminals descend on the village, shooting Yegor before fleeing into the countryside.

The tragedy culminates as Yegor dies in Lyuba’s arms. His sister, Pyotr Baikalov’s ally, Pyotr Aleksey Vanin, pursues the fleeing attackers with a dump truck, crushing their car and pushing it into the river.