About the film
Lieutenant Ogarkov is court-martialled for failing to deliver an order and is sentenced to be shot. A young Kazakh private, Dzhurabayev, is told to guard him until the sentence is carried out.
Then German tanks break into the village. With no one left to give orders, the guard decides to take his prisoner and walk east. They share one greatcoat and one mess tin, fight in chance skirmishes and slowly become something like friends, although they hardly share a language.
Quiet, honest and short, the film is about duty and mercy rather than battles. It was made at Mosfilm with Karen Shakhnazarov as producer.
Did you know?
- Yuri Borisov, who plays Ogarkov, was later nominated for an Academy Award for Anora.
- The story combines a 1948 novella by Kazakevich with Konstantin Simonov's front-line diaries.
