Belorussian Station

Belorussian Station
Directed by Andrei Smirnov
Written by Vadim Trunin
Starring Yevgeny Leonov
Anatoli Papanov
Vsevolod Safonov
Aleksey Glazyrin
Nina Urgant
Music by Alfred Schnittke
Cinematography Pavel Lebeshev
Production
company
Release dates
 30 April 1971
Running time
 101 minutes
Country Soviet Union
Language Russian

Belorussian Station[1] (Russian: Белорусский вокзал[2], translit. Belorusski vokzal) is a 1971 Soviet drama film directed by Andrei Smirnov.

Plot

25 years after the end of Great Patriotic War four comrades-in-arms attend the funeral of their friend. He was the only one of them who stayed in the military and rose to the rank of colonel. The rest of them turned to civil professions: locksmith, journalist, accountant and director of the plant.

Being gathered together due to tragic circumstances, during one day they suddenly fall into a variety of situations – both comic and tragic ones. But in each case friends are united by friendship, generosity and willingness to act according to justice, no matter what...

That difficult day friends complete with a visit to their friend, the former front-line nurse. She sings a lyrical song of the war years, and they cry from the flood of memories as they think back 25 years ago, May 1945, when all of them were alive, young and happy of their victory...

Writing and filming

The original script was written in 1966 by Vadim Trunin was significantly different from the final one shot in the film. According to that scenario, young people at the restaurant began to mock the four front-line friends, and it came to a fight. The former paratroopers easily come out of it victorious, but the called police took the side of young people (one them had influential parents).The police tried to arrest the four friends but instead policemen became victims themselves.

Film director Andrei Smirnov was picking actors for this film for a very long time. Thus, the role of the director of the plant Kharlamov was auditioned for by Mikhail Ulyanov and even Eldar Ryazanov. Nikolay Rybnikov wanted to play the role of the simple locksmith, but Yevgeny Leonov was stronger in the screen test. The character of accountant Dubinsky was conceived as an analogue to Aramis, who would be played by the "classic" intellectual – Innokenty Smoktunovsky or Nikolai Grinko. As a result, Andrei Smirnov chose Anatoly Papanov, who surprisingly combined softness and sentimentality with brutality and power.

Direction of Mosfilm approved Inna Makarova on the role of the nurse Raisa, but Andrei Smirnov insisted on the candidacy of Nina Urgant.

Music

The final song, "We need the victory" (ru:Нам нужна одна победа) was written specially for the film by famous poet Bulat Okudzhava. Director Andrei Smirnov asked Bulat to write lyrics to music by Alfred Schnittke. With the first line Okudzhava also composed a melody. At a meeting with Alfred Schnittke and Smirnov, the poet presented his song. Schnittke liked the melody, later he made an adaption of the song in the form of a march, which since then has been played at the military parades on Victory Day (9 May).

During the filming of the finale and the song a lot of takes were filmed. Director Andrei Smirnov asked Nina Urgant to try not to cry when she sings. As planned by the director veterans-men had to cry, and she, frail woman, had not. For a long time Urgant could not do it, but gathered her courage and managed not to cry. That take went into the final version of the film.

Cast

Awards

References

  1. ↑ http://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/46063/
  2. ↑ http://www.kino-teatr.ru/kino/movie/sov/476/annot/

External links

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