The First Teacher

After the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, Dyuyshen, a young Komsomol member, becomes teacher in a Kyrgyz village and meets resistance from the parents. He befriends Altynai, an illiterate girl eager to learn, who is forced into marriage with a wealthy chieftain and later sent to Tashkent to study. Dyuyshen finds the school burned down and is driven out by the villagers, but vows to build a new one. Based on a story by Chinghiz Aitmatov, the film won Natalia Arinbasarova the Volpi Cup at Venice in 1966.