1914. Soon after the shot is fired in Sarajevo, Russia accepts a crucial call. Brothers Andrei and Nikolai, however, instead of the imminent war, are more interested in the fashionable game of football which the local English community has introduced into St Petersburg. With adolescents from the suburbs, the young medical students start to make a name for themselves and, using indiscriminate means, endeavour to acquire their own stadium. With the war waging elsewhere on some far flung field, these youngsters fanatically devote their time to sporting tournaments and romantic adventures. St Petersburg is renamed Petrograd, the city’s artists are seized by dark premonitions, and brutal murders are being committed in the city. The brothers’ stepfather dies and Nikolai is mobilised. Everything is caving in before their eyes, the revolution is drawing closer… Evidently, it’s human nature to fail to notice the symptoms of catastrophe, to ignore the tempestuous forces of history, and to live one’s unique life amidst all the conflicts which follow. Primarily with visual means, the director evokes the “spirit of the time”, its atmosphere and the nature of human attitudes and gestures – all in a fascinating rhythmical sequence of images.