- Karabash is often called «the most polluted place on Earth» by mass media, and although this title is not officially confirmed, two centuries of copper mining has had a substantial influence on local ecology, transforming the woods and hills into a Mars-like landscape.
- Several young workers stand against a background of factory workshops, control panels, in administrative buildings and in huge warehouses. Mostly their faces do not express anything, they are a little bit embarrassed and lost. They look silently alternately into the camera and somewhere behind it. One of them is more active than others, he cannot stand still and clearly shows vivid interest in what's happening. This is Volodya, one of the main characters of the film.
Archival footage: the entry sign of Karabash with a word "SOS" written on it; factory chimneys fume against the background of mountains in an indefinite past.
In a TV movie of the early 90s, a middle-aged woman excitedly talks about the difficult environmental situation in Karabash, which distinguishes it unfavorably from other towns in the region. The territory of the plant is surrounded by barbed wire. Nowadays, there is no more barbed wire: the plant is fenced with Rabitz wire mesh. In front of it men play football, women and children sit in the stands. Members of rival teams shake hands, run across the field; the game is interspersed with older shots of factory personnel wearing protective suits in the workshops.
Volodya stands near his home in a camouflage suit and smokes. He is unaccustomed to increased attention of the neighbors, which he's getting because of the camera. He goes to the store, buys more cigarettes and retells a conversation with his colleague, who voluntarily moved to Karabash from Yekaterinburg. The colleague was attracted by local nature and sedate rhythm of life. Volodya waits for the bus, gets in it and leaves.
Concrete slabs of barbed-wire fence float past, hiding factory infrastructure. The colossal workshops look deceivingly empty, but there is life in them: here and there, steam puffs break out, a bridge crane moves, molten metal whirls. Archival footage, report from a folk fest, either Maslenitsa or Sabantuya. A man climbs wooden pole above all, wins the contest and receives a prize - a living rooster.
Volodya is at home, talks about his new tattoo - a two-headed eagle from the universe of Warhammer, 40,000 game. The tattoo says: "In the sinister darkness of distant future there is only war." Volodya walks into the kitchen, talks to a cat and admits that he completely agrees with this phrase.
Camera zooms into old dilapidated buildings, wastelands and thickets. A man off-screen says that those spots used to hold residential buildings, cafes, bathhouses. This is an exclusion zone around the plant, from which residents were forcibly resettled. Winter comes to Karabash, snow already lies here and there. Volodya says that he considers the idea of progress absurd, as he defines progress as a war against oneself. He ends the speech by saying that for him any change, even the most ordinary one, is terrible, and every time it seems to him that it was better before. He sits at a table and plays a computer game enthusiastically. Aerial shots of Karabash and its environs, followed by a long archival video: a man in a jacket and glasses sings Yuri Antonov's song "Dreams Come True".
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