Much of the narrative focuses on Mike, the frontman of one of the Club's more popular, old-guard bands, and his girlfriend Natacha, whose close, initially monogamous relationship stands in contrast to the expected behavior of rockstars.

Also significant to the plot is Viktor, a quiet, slightly otherworldly young man with a knack for melody and a beguilingly peculiar turn of lyrical phrase.

Natacha is the first to notice a kind of melancholic magic about Viktor, as the film gradually reorients itself around his budding stardom rather than Mike's less obviously ascending career.

In one such performance, an altercation between musicians and more conservative citizens on a packed train escalates into a demented, carriage-traversing singalong of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer," the hitherto realist imagery disrupted with early-MTV-style cartoon flourishes.

The soundtrack also includes covers of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", Iggy Pop's "Passenger", Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", and David Bowie's "All the Young Dudes" by contemporary Russian artists, such as Glintshake and Shortparis.

The site's critical consensus reads, "A love story set against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in Russian culture, Leto captures people -- and a generation -- in thrilling flux.

[22] Ben Sachs, the top critic from the Chicago Reader, gave a positive review of the film: "If you can disregard the derivativeness, this has some decent music and charismatic performances, and it provides some insights into the Western aspirations of Soviet youth culture."

[24] The film was sharply criticized by the music producer Andrei Tropillo, who described the director Serebrennikov as "a person alien to rock culture and knowing nothing about it".