A soldier's three-day truce with peace, love, and waltzes before the war swallows him whole.
Three days in bright May Moscow. Three days, when Senior Lieutenant Pechalin, who has long forgotten the smell of peaceful life, will again feel all its charm. Meet with an old friend Gaevsky, fall in love with a casual acquaintance Victoria, celebrate Victory Day with her and dance a romantic waltz on the Bolshoi Theater Square...
Acting
Kravchenko's thousand-yard stare in a civilian suit.
Cinematography
Moscow in May: golden light that feels like goodbye.
Director
Ilya Rubinshtein
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Victory Day 2007 marked heightened military nostalgia in Putin-era Russia; the film weaponizes patriotic spectacle against its own hero.
Aleksei Kravchenko, who plays Kotelnikov, starred as the boy in Come and See (1985)—his presence here as a hardened officer completes a devastating Russian war cinema legacy.
RU
