The story about a very small god-forgotten village in Siberia reflects the history of Russia from the beginning of the century till the early 1980s. Three generations try to find the land of happiness and to give it to the people. One builds the road through taiga to the star over horizon, the second 'build communism' and the third searches for oil.
Cinematography
The birch forest fire sequence belongs in museums.
Direction
Konchalovsky at peak ambition before Hollywood corrupted him.
Production
Built an entire Siberian village. For one film. Soviets didn't play.
Director
Andrei Konchalovsky
Nikita Mikhalkov
Aleksei Ustyuzhanin
Vitali Solomin
Nikolai Ustyuzhanin
Sergey Shakurov
Spiridon Solomin
Natalya Andreychenko
Anastasia Solomina
Lyudmila Gurchenko
Older Taya Solomina
Vladimir Samoylov
Afanasi Ustyuzhanin
Mikhail Kononov
Rodion Klimentov
Nikolai Skorobogatov
Yermolai
Pavel Kadochnikov
Eternal Grandfather
Evgeniy Leonov-Gladyshev
Alesha Ustyuzhanin
Yevgeni Perov
Yerofei Solomin
Konstantin Grigorev
Geolog Guryev
Dmitriy Buzylyov-Kretso
Mitya
Ivan Dmitriev
Blinov
Yelena Koreneva
Younger Taya Solomina
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the brief 'Ottepel' thaw when Soviet artists could almost criticize the system. Konchalovsky pushed every limit.
The film's Cannes standing ovation ran so long that Konchalovsky, Mikhalkov and Solomin missed their flight back to Moscow.
SU
