Main Cast: Igor Petrenko, Artem Semakin, Alexei Panin, Alexei Kravchenko, Anatoly Gushchin
Release Year: 2002
Country: RU
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
Zvezda (The Star) takes place in the summer of 1944, when Red Army troops were fighting on the Polish border in hopes of halting Hitler's advancing forces. In a desperate attempt to gain intelligence on a massive tank attack the Germans are allegedly orchestrating, a team of scouts with the radio code name "Star" is haphazardly put together from the ranks of the surviving soldiers. Though a series of encounters with the enemy quickly follows, the rag-tag group of men are able to broadcast the details of future enemy tactics and troop movements even as they are annihilated in a brutal battle with German troops. The Russian soldiers are given posthumous medals for bravery in 1964. Zvezda is directed by Nikolai Lebedev, who greatly admires Steven Spielberg's work, and admittedly tried to emulate many of the American director's techniques used in Saving Private Ryan. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
Cast
Igor Petrenko
Artem Semakin
Alexei Panin
Alexei Kravchenko
Anatoly Gushchin
Amadu Mamadakov; Yury Laguta; Andrei Yegorov; Ekaterina Vulichenko
Credit
Nikolai Lebedev - Director, Eduard Yermolin - Editor, Alexei Rybnikov - Composer (Music Score), Lyudmila Kusakova - Production Designer, Yuri Nevsky - Cinematographer, Karen Shakhnazarov - Producer, Alexander Pogossian - Sound/Sound Designer, Yevgeny Grigoryev - Screenwriter, Alexandr Borodyansky - Screenwriter, Nikolai Lebedev - Screenwriter, Emmanuil G. Kazakevich - Short Story Author
A team of Soviet scouts is sent behind enemy lines to find the location of the German armor forces. The Soviets wait until night, and open up with an artillery barrage. As the guns fire, the team advances. The team successfully slips behind enemy lines. Many dramatic scenes follow. In one, a German soldier is captured and interrogated. In another, the team calls an airstrike on German positions, causing great damage and casualties. One man even kills a German soldier with his pistol during the air attack. This tract of scenes finds the main characters successfully finding the location of the German armor. They are eventually cornered in a barn, with Germans attacking on all sides. During the battle, the team leader sends a radio message, telling the location of enemy armor. The team is eventually overrun and wiped out.
