A Nazi guard saves prisoners, then hunts them decades later. What broke his conscience?
Three Soviet prisoners of war escape from a fascist concentration camp at the end of the war. One of the guards helps them and runs with them. Many years later, this former German henchman meets one of the escapees and comes up with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe destruction of all the fugitives with whom he once escaped from a concentration camp; they abandoned him wounded during the escape. He begins to put his cruel plan into action, deciding to take revenge and thereby getting rid of witnesses to his crimes in the concentration camp...
Acting
Safonov's guard: every glance suggests a man eating himself alive.
Direction
Kavtaradze stretches silence until it screams.
Writing
The ironic title becomes a weapon against the viewer.
Director
Yuriy Kavtaradze
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rare Soviet film exploring German perpetrator psychology rather than heroic resistance—controversial in 1974 Eastern Bloc.
Kavtaradze allegedly cut 20 minutes of flashback exposition; studio fought to keep the guard 'more sympathetic.' He won.
SU
