The Steamroller and the Violin

A seven-year-old violinist and the older rink worker who defends him from bullies strike up an unlikely friendship over one Moscow afternoon. Andrei Tarkovsky's 1960 diploma film sets a child's stubborn seriousness about his craft against a workman's quiet code of honor.

Why it's free: Free on Mosfilm's own channel; Mosfilm holds the rights to its Soviet-era catalogue.