About the film
In the mid-1920s, ten demobilised Red Army soldiers, a border commander, his wife and an old geologist cross the Kara-Kum desert to reach the railway.
At a ruined mosque they find a hidden well, and in it a machine gun belonging to the basmachi raiders. They decide to stay and hold the well until help comes, although they are hopelessly outnumbered.
A tense desert adventure, often called a Soviet Western.
Did you know?
- The Hollywood film Sahara (1943), starring Humphrey Bogart, was based on its story.
- Director Mikhail Romm later made Nine Days in One Year and Ordinary Fascism.
