1992. Building communism, like everything else, has come to a halt. On the ruins of the empire, streetwise guys look for their cut. Khomenko’s handheld camera follows one of them. Hustling between a market stall and the workshops of the local bohemia, he moves cars, condoms, timber, jeans, cows, fodder, and railway wagons. “Zhava” came out around the same time as Shunkov’s “Obsession”, yet Irkutsk becomes two completely different cities in the two films.
