About the film
The Civil War is over, but a small town in southern Russia is still full of bandits and former White officers. A train carrying gold to buy grain for the starving is robbed, and the blame falls on Shilov, one of five friends who fought together for the Reds.
Now he is neither one of us nor one of them. To prove his innocence he goes after the gold alone, through the steppe and into the hands of the gang.
Nikita Mikhalkov's first feature is a Soviet Western: horses, trains, shootouts and an Eduard Artemyev score. It made stars of its young cast and is still one of the most loved adventure films in Russian.
Did you know?
- It was Nikita Mikhalkov's debut as a feature director.
- Mikhalkov himself plays the charming bandit chief Brylov.
- The score is by Eduard Artemyev, who also wrote the music for Solaris and Stalker.
