In northward far camp NKVD arrives echelon with the group of prisoners. Among them there are an engineer Sadovskiy and inveterate criminal Kostya, that quickly becomes the ringleader of barrack and forbids to all the appearances at work. The officials of cheka begin a persistent and tactful fight for the change of these people.
Acting
Astangov's Kostya — chilling charisma you can't look away from
Direction
Chervyakov's unflinching gaze at Soviet penal philosophy
Production
Authentic Gulag atmosphere that predates Solzhenitsyn's revelations
Director
Yevgeni Chervyakov
Vera Yanukova
Sonka
Mariya Goricheva
Engineer Sadovskiy's mother
Mikhail Astangov
Kostya Kapitan
Boris Dobronravov
Director Gromov
Aleksandr Cheban
Big official
Mikhail Yanshin
Maks
Boris Tamarin
Engineer Yuriy Sadovskiy
Gennadi Michurin
Botkin
Pavel Olenev
Sasha
Aleksandr Antonov
Vanya (uncredited)
Mark Bernes
Convict (uncredited)
Konstantin Gradopolov
Pyzhov (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the Great Purge's opening act — the film's 're-education' optimism now reads as haunting historical irony.
Chervyakov died mysteriously in 1942; many 1930s Soviet films about camps were later suppressed or destroyed.
SU
