Sky slow-mover

Screenplay and Director: Semyon Timoshenko, Music: Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi. Starring: Nickolai Kriuchkov, Vasily Merkuryev, Alla Parfanyak et al. A funny comedy about the workaday routine at the war of the women-pilots of a military squadron during the years of the Great Patriotic War.

© “Lenfilm”, 1945, 83 minutes, black and white. 

Zhdi menia (Wait for me)

Directors: A. Stolper, B. Ivanov. Starring: B. Blinov, V. Serova, L. Sverdlin, P. Gedaga, M. Nezvanov, N. Zorskaia et al. Based on K. Simonov's play and poetry. During World War II back on the occupied territory Ermolov orders war correspondent Vainstein to convey to a corps the film with pictures of enemy airfields and a note for his wife. Vainstein leaves and after a short time hears a shooting going on in the vicinity of the dugout. He assures Lisa that Ermolov is dead but she doubts and every day she hopes that tomorrow they will meet... 

@"TsOKS", Alma-Ata, 1943

Ballad of a soldier Director: Chuhrai. Starring: V. Ivashov, Zh. Prokhorenko, A. Maximova, N. Kriuchkov, Å. Urbansky, E. Lezhdey et al. The given simple story of a young soldier on a short leave from the front is acknowledged as one of the best films devoted to the Patriotic War. The main hero is a Russian soldier, Alyosha Skvortsov, one of the many who made the victory over Fascism possible. He is neither an action movie hero, nor a conqueror. This simple boy, who was panic-stricken at the first sight of an enemy tank, overcomes his fear and manages to hit two enemy machines. However, battle scenes do not take much of the film’s time. For his fighting exploits Alyosha is awarded a two-day’s leave to visit his mother. He meets many different people on his way and is ready to help everybody.

That leaves him just a few minutes to spend with his mother – a few words, a hug, and he is off for the front again… to never come back. It is an outstanding film which came into the golden fund of the world cinematograph. In 1960-61 the film was awarded the main prizes at the film festivals in Minsk, San Francisco, Karlovy Vary, Canne, Milan, London, Teheran and Mexico. It was declared to be the best foreign film of 1960 in England, Poland and Greece. G. Chuhrai è V. Ezhov were awarded the Lenin Prize (1961) for the film “Ballad of a Soldier”.

© “Mosfilm”, 1959, 85 min. 

Cranes are flying

Director: Ì. Kalatozov. Starring: T. Samoilova, A. Batalov, V. Merkuryev, A. Shvorin, S. Kharitonova et al. The film narrates with an astonishing emotional power about people whose fortunes the war intruded mercilessly into. Not all have been able to undergo the given trial with honor… This is a story of love that could not be destroyed even by war. Boris is felled by an enemy’s bullet in action. Veronica is devastated: she has lost her lover, her parents, her home. As an act of despair, she attempts to find a new family for herself, but only loses her self-respect. She is finally redeemed by rescuing a little boy from being run down by a car. She finds strength to continue living, refusing to believe that Boris is dead. Veronica would not stop waiting for him. Life for her is love, and its loss is equivalent to death…The Grand Prize “Golden Palm Bough”, a special jury diploma, the prize for the best women’s role to T. Samoilova, the Prize of the French highest technical commission to director of photography S. Urusevsky at XI IFF in Canne, 1958. The Prize of “Silver Sombrero” at I IFF in Guadalakhara, 1958; a special Prize at I IFF in Moscow, 1958. Diplomas of Honor at IX IFF in Locarno, 1958; I IFF in Vancouver, 1958; IFF at Helsinki, 1958; International review of festival films in Mexico, 1958.

© “Mosfilm”, 1957, 93 min. 

Destiny of a man Director: S. Bondarchuk Cast: S. Bondarchuk, Pavlik Boriskin, Z. Kirienko, P. Volkov et al. After M. Sholohov’s short story. The given film is one of the most outstanding cinematographic works. It is a life story of the Russian soldier who has gone through the terrible trials of the fate: he lost his family and home, got into a concentration camp…But the fate failed to break down his spirit, he has survived and asserted his right to be the man, he also kept his ability to love…

The Grand Golden Prize at I IFF in Moscow, 1959. A special prize “A crystal vase” at X IFF of the working people in Czechoslovakia, 1959. The Lenin Prize to film director and the main role performer S. Bondarchuk and camera-man V. Monakhov, 1960. A special prize at XVII IFF in Karlovy Vary, 1970.

© “Mosfilm”, 1959, 97 min.

Director: Pyotr Todorovsky
Cast: Inna Churikova, Nikolai Burlyayev, Natalya Andreychenko 

This melodrama revolves around the post-war meeting reunion an intelligent front-line officer, now happily married, and a woman street vendor. This encounter reawakens in them submerged feelings of gratitude and tenderness as the officer recalls how they met during the war and what she used to mean to him. Now he learns that she is alone with a small daughter, the girl's father having been killed at war. Naturally, he seeks to help them but his wife is not so understanding... 

At Dawns It's Quiet Here... Director: Stanislav Rostotsky  Cast: Andrei Martynov, Irina Shevchuk, Olga Ostroumova, Yelena Drapenko, Irina Dolganova, Yekaterina Markova,Liudmila Zaitseva, Alla Meshcheryakova, Igor Kostolevsky, Alexei Chernov, Yuri Sorokin  The action takes place during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). Russian Karelia, the autumn of 1941. Five anti-aircraft gunner girls, who are mostly under twenty years old, and their commander,

Sergeant Vaskov, discover that a German subversive detachment has landed in this, still far-removed from the front line, locale. The information must be delivered to the headquarters. However, the saboteurs have broken communications, cutting off the small group from their own people and leaving them no hope of getting any help. The enemy endeavors to further penetrate into the rear of the Soviet army on a mission to destroy a number of essential facilities. Vaskov and the five girls accept battle, being outnumbered by sixteen Fascists, armed to the teeth...

Gorky Film Studio, 1972, 190 min.

Director: Semyon Aranovich. Starring: Rodion Nakhapetov, Alexei Zharkov, Andrei Boltnev, Stanislav Sadalsky, Tatiana Kravchenko, Vera Glagoleva, Nadezhda Lukashevich, Vsevolod Shilovsky, Sergei Bekhterev, Alexander Filippenko, Yuri Kuznetsov, Eduard Volodarsky

The film is based on short stories by Russian writer Yuri Guerman. The year of 1944. The Second World War. A marine air force regiment is stationed at a small airfield. For the pilots, this is both the front and the rear. They live here with their families, leading a seemingly normal life, giving small parties and even attending concerts of touring artistes. And yet, any operational flight may prove to be the last one in their life… The film incorporates the unique wartime documentaries, which were filmed, on the one side, by the British, and on the other side - by the German camera men. This work was done at a time when the German bombers attacked the British caravan of freight ships sailing due Murmansk under the Lend-Lease Act. On the British part, the filming was done by a camera man sailing on board of one of the attacked ships. On the German part, there was a camera operator flying with the pilot of one of the bombers...

We draw the fire at ourself  (2 parts)   

Screenplay and Director: S. Kolosov. Starring: L. Kasatkina, Å. Korolyova, A. Lazarev, O. Efremov, R. Bykov, S. Chekan.

The Lenin Komsomol Prize (Moscow, 1968) The Grand Prize of I All-Union festival of telefilms (Kiev, 1966) GDR TV Prize (1966).

The thrilling film plot is based on the real facts and events of the Great Patriotic War period. A group of the Soviet underground organization members led by Anna Morozova, a secret service woman, has managed to come into contact with the Poles working at the German aerodrome. Risking their lives every minute the group members not only prepare and realize successfully the collection of intelligence data but they also carry out a series of diversions. They have to pay a high price for this important victory, but the price does not seem to be very significant on a war scale.

Mosfilm, 1963-1964, 164 min. + 147 min. (4 parts)

Director: Aleksandr Rogozhkin
Cast: Aleksei Kashnikov, Anni-Christina Juuso, Mikhail Korobochkin, Viktor Bychkov,
Ville Haapasalo

September 1944, in a land torn apart by war, a sniper is labeled a coward by his
compatriots; as punishment, he is nailed to a rock and left to his own devices. Not long after, a disgraced Russian Captain, on route to his court martial, is injured in an accident. Both men are about to find out they have one thing in common. Wounded and emotionally tortured, they are taken in by Anni, a young, resourceful war widow, who offers shelter to one while nursing the other back to health.