A truly people's artist, beloved and respected by everyone, Alexey Vladimirovich Batalov is undoubtedly the standard of masculinity and intelligence in Russian cinema. A talented actor, director, public figure and wise mentor for the younger generation of students. Those who were lucky enough to communicate with him personally are doubly happy. The book by the famous film director Sergei Aleksandrovich Solovyov, based on his film about Alexei Batalov from the series “Those with whom I ...” for the TV channel “Culture”, is permeated with a reverent attitude towards outstanding contemporaries, with with which fate brought the author together on the set and beyond. His verbal portraits of outstanding screen masters are devoid of banal features, well-known facts, they are warmed by the unique personal intonation of the author, who talks about his colleagues in art freely, relaxed, ironically, but also tenderly, with a lot of vivid details that are known only to him.