Soviet commandos vs. literal water mines in 75 minutes of pure tension.
WWII, 1945. There are fights for the city on the Danube. The river is mined by the Germans, and this fetters the action of our troops. In addition, a city with a million people was left without food. And downstream are Soviet food barges. The command instructs the reconnaissance group a difficult and dangerous operation — to obtain from the enemy a map of the mined sections of the river, which requires penetrating into the city captured by the Germans.
Acting
Leonid Bykov's nervous energy vs. Mykolaichuk's granite stoicism.
Practical Effects
Actual river, actual boats, actual 1960s Ukraine standing in for 1945.
Director
Ihor Samborskyi
Ivan Mykolaichuk
Kurganov
Leonid Bykov
Makarenko
Kostiantyn Stepankov
Miklós
Andrii Sova
boatswain
Aleksei Smirnov
Sigayev
Lyudmila Marchenko
Marie
Vitaliy Doroshenko
Kashkin
Vladimir Yemelyanov
general
Lavrenti Masokha
Carlosi
Valerii Panarin
scout
Aleksandr Anurov
1st rank captain
Vladimir Volkov
marine captain
Valentyn Dukler
Carlosi's friend
Rudolf Dambran
german colonel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during the Prague Spring's ghost—Ukrainian directors making a film about liberation while Soviet tanks prepared to crush it.
The Danube scenes were filmed on the Dnieper; local villagers were hired as extras playing starving Budapest civilians. Method casting, Soviet style.
SU
