A Soviet POW lets his enemy go free — now they're both running for their lives.
Commissar Selivanov and several Red Army soldiers manage to escape from captivity. They are being pursued by the White Guards and Basmachi, led by a colonel who was released on parole by Selivanov.
Acting
Olyalin's haunted eyes say everything the script doesn't.
Cinematography
Harsh Central Asian landscapes as existential prison.
Director
Anatoli Nitochkin
Nikolay Olyalin
Селиванов
Leonid Markov
полковник Степанов
Yuriy Nazarov
Трифон
Bolot Beyshenaliev
Темирбей
Valentin Nikulin
Карнаухов
Anuarbek Moldabekov
Дженгенев
Rimma Kabdalieva
Турсуна
Larisa Luzhina
Галина
Viktor Uralsky
Афанасий Петрович
Anatoli Borisov
старик
Valeri Anisimov
Aleksei Mokrousov
прапорщик
Vladimir Bershanskiy
Igor Kosukhin
Aleksandr Zharkov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Brezhnev's stagnation era, when filmmakers sneaked moral complexity past state censors using Civil War settings.
Bolot Beyshenaliev, who plays Temirbey, was Kyrgyzstan's most celebrated actor — this rare villain role subverted his usual heroic type.
SU
