Vasily Shukshin’s delightful tale follows a truck driver from the Altai region, Pashka, and his adventures on the road. Played by the phenomenal Leonid Kuravlyov, Pashka may be a little rough around the edges but he is a joker with a zeal for life. As is typical of Shukshin’s films, the director returns a dignity and heroism to the often overlooked rural communities outside Moscow and shows that appearances are only skin deep.