GOLOS TARASA (TARAS' VOICE)

The picture features the liberation of Western Ukraine.

The self-contained concert items are linked by the presentation of the host, Nikolai Cherkasov.

The picture is focused on the taxi driver Petya Govorkov who possesses a beautiful strong voice and becomes a professional singer.

• 
  The authors of the film were honored the Stalin’s Prize of the USSR.
  

An experimental picture revealing the artistic unity of colored images and music.

The picture features the heroic crossing of the Pamir by a Red Army unit sent to assist the residents of a Tajik village affected by an earthquake.

The picture is focused on school graduates choosing their future vocations.

The picture features the emancipation of the Kazakh women under the Soviet power.

The sun has set. All the animals have gone to sleep. Only Baby Mouse is not sleepy. He doesn't like the lullaby his Mother Mouse is singing. The agitated Mother goes to the Frog, the Pig. the Duck, the Horsy, and the Pike for help, but they can't sing the silly Baby Mouse to sleep. Despairing, Mother Mouse brings in the Cat to baby-sit. Disaster would have struck, but for the courageous guard, the Dog, who just manages to save Baby Mouse who went to sleep, soothed by Cat's “kind” purring.

A small circus has spread its tent in a small town square. Its arena is graced by famous circus performers such as the Athletic Bear, the Juggling Poodle, and the Acrobatic Cat. Behind the wings, the Mongrel Dog is performing the modest duties of a cleaner. It so happened that the silly Donkey participating in one of the tricks turned obstinate during a performance. They had to summon the Mongrel Dog, well familiar with the Donkey's temper. The Mongrel Dog not just dealt with the stubborn Donkey, but also displayed some accomplished circus artistry before the admiring spectators.

The picture is focused on the change in the personality of a young civilian scientist accomplished during a two-month training course in the annual camp.

Conservatory professor gives his daughter classical musical education expecting that she will continue the family traditions. However, Simochka is fascinated by the “light” music. She makes a brilliant debut in an operetta and finds her vocation in this genre.

Poland is occupied by fascist troops. A Nazi officer gives order to execute a Byelorussian peasant. However, the peasant manages to escape. On June 22, 1941 when fascist troops attacked the USSR the two men meet again...

A Nazi pilot regarded by Hitler to be “the first of aces” is bombing Soviet cities. During one of bombing attacks his plane is shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft gunners.

Many years ago a young woman worked as a nanny in a German family. Later the boy she brought up moved with his family to Germany. Now he returns to Russia as a Nazi spy and is trying to hide in the house of his old nanny. The old woman and her grandchildren unmask the enemy.

A Yugoslavian patriot kills the brutal fascist officer. Nazis order to execute 100 hostages, but people condemned to death manage to kill their guards.

A strange figure appears among the people waiting in line to send a telegram. It is Napoleon. The telegraph clerk calculates the cost of the telegram addressed to Hitler in Berlin. The message is brief:

“Have tried, don’t recommend to”.

341 VALERY CHKALOV (VALERY CHKALOV)

1941, 89 min., b/w

Drama

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov, screenplay: Georgy Baidukov, Dmitry Tarasov, Boris Chirskov, camera: Alexander Gintsburg, production designer: Alexander Black, misic: Venedikt Pushkov, sound: Arnold Shargorodsky, Yevgeny Nesterov

Cast: Vladimir Belokurov, Semyon Menzhinsky, Kseniya Tarasova, Vasily Vanin, Boris Zhukovsky

The film is about the fate of the famous Soviet aviator Chkalov, who in mid 30’es made with his crew the first nonstop flight from Moscow to the Far East, covering over 9000 kilometers and later made the first nonstop transatlantic flight from Moscow to the USA across the North Pole.

The short propaganda film was released a month and a half after the outbreak of World War II. Maxim, the popular movie character of the 30’es comes down from the screen and addresses the viewers with the appeal to fight fascists that invaded the country.

On his way to a recruiting station Tyorkin notices three paratroopers dropped from fascist aircraft. Using a ruse Tyorkin destroys the fascists and proceeds on his way.

This cinema concert is composed of separate concert turns of different genres performed by prominent actors.

Based on Mikhail Lermontov’s play of the same title.

Actress Lelya Fedorina who played the role of the nurse in the film “Wartime Friends” urges Leningrad women to go to the front as nurses. The film was released three weeks after Nazi troops attacked the USSR.

The eccentric comedy is focused at the fussy and energetic Korzinkina, a cashier at a local train station, who all the time meddles in passengers’ affairs.

Autumn of 1919. White Army troops under General Yudenich together with foreign interventionists are approaching Petrograd. Putilov Factory workers headed by the old foreman Ivan Yegorovich start manufacturing first Soviet tanks and join Red Army detachments going to defend the city.

The summer of 1941. Beginning of World War II. Having seen their sons off to the front retired workers take their children’s jobs at plants and factories.

The girl has a dream: together with her friends she makes a long flight on an airplane. In the Arctic the girls are welcomed by a Polar Bear. Polar animals give the girls a concert and meanwhile two little bears get in the airplane and take off...The girl sees the plane in the sky.. and wakes up. She is disappointed to realize that it was just a dream and starts crying.

On the first days of war a group of girls volunteer to go to the front. Young nurses selflessly help doctors in hospitals and on battlefields to save wounded Red Army fighters. It is during these hard war days that a strong and sincere feeling of love comes to heroes of the film.

• 
  The authors of the film were honored the Stalin’s Prize of the USSR.
  

Chapayev, the legendary Civil War hero and the popular character of Soviet cinema in the 30’es descends from the screen and urges viewers to merciless fight against Nazis that attacked the Soviet Union.

The film was released 40 days after German troops attacked the USSR.

353 VANKA (VANKA)

1942, 35 min., b/w

Drama

Director: Gerbert Rappaport, screenplay: Semyon Polotsky, Matvei Tevelev, Manuel Bolshintsov, camera: Vladimir Rapoport, production designer: Moisey Levitin, misic: Vasily Velikanov, sound: Alexander Ostrovsky

Cast: Yanina Zheimo, Yuri Bogolyubov, Mikhail Zharov, Boris Blinov

Story of a young girl Tanka who disguised as a boy joins the guerilla detachment and takes vengeance on fascists for the death of her parents.

The severe winter of 1941. Residents of Leningrad send parcels with presents to soldiers defending the city. In one of the parcels there is a pair of warm mittens and a message from a girl, who asks to give her present to the bravest soldier. Which of the fighters shall get the mittens?

The film was made in winter of 1941 — 1942 by actors and cinema workers who were staying in Leningrad besieged by Nazi troops.

355 YEGO ZOVUT SUKHE-BATOR (HIS NAME IS SUKHE-BATOR)

1942, 105 min., b/w, Mongolkino, Tashkent Film Studio, “Lenfilm”

Historical drama

Directors: Alexander Zarkhi, Iosif Heifits, screenplay: Boris Lapin, Zakhar Khartsevin, Alexander Zarkhi, camera: Alexander Gintsburg, production designer: Anatoly Bosulayev, misic: Boris Arapov, Venedikt Pushkov, sound: Arnold Shargorodsky

Cast: Maksim Shtraukh, Lev Sverdlin, Gelik Dordzi, Erintsyn Narbo, Nikolai Cherkasov, Tseven

1919. Mongolian people are rising against feudal lords oppressing peasants and herdsmen. The uprising is headed by Sukhe, nicknamed Bator for his courage. The fill narrates about the national liberation movement of Mongolian people.

The autumn of 1941. Leningrad is besieged by the Nazis. A new model of tank is being developed at a large defense plant. Built in the shortest possible time combat vehicles are tested directly on battlefields, fighting with fascists in the outskirts of the city.

The first feature film about the heroic everyday life of city defenders was shot directly in assembly shops of plants and in the streets of Leningrad when the city was fighting against the enemy.

357 OBORONA TSARITSYNA (DEFENSE OF TSARITSYN)

1942, 104 min., b/w

Drama

Written and directed by: Georgy and Sergei Vasilyev, camera: Apollinary Dudko, Alexander Sigayev, Sergei Ivanov, production designers: Pyotr Yakimov, Ivan Znoinov, Mikhail Tsibasov, misic: Nikolai Kryukov, sound: Alexander Bekker

Cast: Mikhail Gelovani, Nikolai Bogolyubov, Mikhail Zharov, Varvara Myasnikova, Pavel Kadochnikov, Vasily Sofronov, Boris Babochkin

The autumn of 1918. In the course of the Civil War Tsaritsyn, a large city and a major port on the Volga river became the place of a decisive battle between the White Army counterrevolutionaries and the Red Army troops.

Cossack Perchikhin and a factory worker Katya Davydova actively participate in mobilization of the city residents for the defense of Tsaritsyn together with the Red Army units headed by the Red Army commander Voroshilov and the Moscow envoy Stalin.

Two parts of the film were shot simultaneously. The second part was never released.

The authors of the film were honored the Stalin’s Prize of the USSR.

358 AKTRISA (THE ACTRESS)

1943, 76 min., b/w

Melodrama

Director: Leonid Trauberg, screenplay: Mikhail Volpin, Nikolai Erdman, camera: Andrei Moskvin, production designer: Yevgeny Yeney, sound: Ilya Volk

Cast: Galina Sergeyeva, Boris Babochkin, Mikhail Zharov, Zoya Morskaya, Vladimir Gribkov, Konstantin Sorokin

A famous operetta actress Zoya Strelnikova, evacuated with her theatre to a remote Siberian

town, believes that the profession of an actress is out of place in the severe war days and begins working as a nurse at a hospital. Her meetings with wounded soldiers, who enjoy listening to Strelnikova’s record, which they keep with the greatest possible care, make her realize the real place of the actress in the hard war times. She returns to the theatre and participates in concerts arranged for soldiers at the front.

The film was restored at “Lenfilm” in 1972.