A Lonely Soldier

Student: Ivan Kondratenko

Educational Programme: Creative Writing (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2024

Ivan lives in the '90s, finishing school, dreaming of becoming an archaeologist, and also in love with Masha. A recent school graduate, he wanders aimlessly around the provincial town. A gypsy woman on the tram predicts an unusual fate and snowy mountains for him. Masha rejects him. His father wants him to study engineering. His mother turns him towards Krishna. Life sends him into bad company, into a detention cell, and then into the military barracks. From the barracks, it's not far to war, and where there is war, there is also captivity. In captivity, in a mountain village, all-conquering love lifts him up, spins his head, only to throw him back to the ground. The earth is bitter, and there is no refuge in it. Ivan's life is cast like dice onto sharp mountains. He left home and is doomed to wander.

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