Andrey Gagarin, a resident of Nizhny Tagil, comes home on holiday to the Komi-Permyak District. He visits relatives and friends with great energy, and at every opportunity sings and dances even when sober — which, you must agree, is rather uncharacteristic of the Russian temperament. Equally untypical of our times is the «bykoboy» itself — a ritual of bull sacrifice, in which Andrey takes part together with the whole of his native village of Bolshaya Kocha.
The film is, in fact, more serious than this somewhat light-hearted retelling…
Grand Prix of the international festival «Gold FIPA» in Biarritz (France), 2002.
Grand Prix of the Open Festival of Non-Fiction Cinema «Russia 2000», Yekaterinburg.
Grand Prix of the 3rd Russian Festival of Anthropological Films, Salekhard, 2002.
Prize for Best Documentary Film at the international festival of television programmes and films «TeleProfy», Saratov, 2001.
Prize in the «Best National Programme» nomination at the 5th festival of television programmes and films «Golden Drum-2001», Khanty-Mansiysk.
For this very work the director was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art for the year 2002.
It so happens that this film exists in two versions, differing in practice only in their running time: 1 hour 11 minutes and 53 minutes. Presented here is the shorter version — less detailed in characters and incidents, but more dynamic.