The main events unfold in the train. The acceptance committee from Moscow, revealing deficiencies in the constructed bakery, did not sign the act of its delivery. But the fate of not only many people associated with the construction, but also the life of the town as a whole depends on this. Lyonya Shindin — a conscientious and decent man — is trying by all means and by any means to change the decision of the commission...
Acting
Kuravlyov's Shindin — dignity eroding in real time.
Direction
Lioznova turns a train car into a pressure cooker of Soviet anxiety.
Production
Authentic period detail that suffocates you with authenticity.
Director
Tatyana Lioznova
Leonid Kuravlyov
Lyonya Shindin
Irina Muravyova
Alla Shindina, Lyonya's wife
Aristarkh Livanov
Malisov
Yuriy Yakovlev
Yuri Nikolayevich Devyatov
Klara Luchko
Violetta Matveyevna Nuikina
Oleg Yankovskiy
Gennadiy Mikhailovich Semyonov
Iosif Kobzon
himself
Nikolai Parfyonov
train conductor
Vadim Zakharchenko
controller-auditor
Vladimir Shikhov
indignant passenger
Marina Gavrilko
passenger with a cigarette
Igor Gusev
policeman
Viktor Ivanov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
A rare Soviet film critiquing the system while technically inside it — Lioznova walked a tightrope that disappeared after glasnost.
The train setting wasn't budget necessity; it mirrors the unstoppable machinery of Soviet industry that cannot be redirected, only endured.
SU
