Kholodnoe leto pyatdesyat tretego

This is a very good movie, however, one has to have some knowledge of Soviet history to fully understand it. The story takes place right after the death of Josef Stalin, to "celebrate" his death the Soviet command released all the prisoners within Soviet jails. All prisoners except the political ones, that is to say the rapists, murderers and thieves were freed while those who fought for freedom were still behind bars. That summer there was an unprecedented epidemic of crime in the Soviet Union. This film deals with the situation in a small village that has been attacked by a group of released prisoners, and the fight of one political prisoner to help the villagers.

A violent gang take over a small town where a train carrying gold is shortly due to pass through. The local lawman stands up to them but is killed. Everyone else is too frightened to resist, except for a couple of strangers who everyone else views with suspicion but who have a final shoot out with the gang and save the town.

Sounds familiar? Like a lot of other westerns? Yes, except that the town is in Siberia, the gang are criminals released in an amnesty (prison bosses took the opportunity to relieve themselves of the prisoners who caused the most trouble) and the strangers in town are political exiles from Moscow.

It's well executed and entertaining, even with subtitles. It proves that certain ideas cross cultural boundaries.

One of the best Soviet movies. A must see along with reading Solzhenitsyn's books.

Many said in their comments that this movie is sort of an action movie about good guys shooting bad guys. To me, this perception totally misses the idea of the movie. This film is absolutely not about shooting and action, even though there is plenty of it. It is about many things. It is about physical and more importantly deep psychological suffering of people who lived in exile during Stalin/Soviet repressions.

This film shows in a dramatic way lives of two people and their families being ruined buy the System. The film portrays two examples (out of millions) of one person who's gone through pain of World War II and one of a dedicated scientists who found themselves been thrown to a jail and their hopes broken at times when they were at their peak in life. Then they found themselves existing for many long and cold years in Siberian exile watching their lives slipping away from them.

Another important point of the film is showing the entire generations of people (with very few exceptions) being brainwashed and molded the way that state wanted them to be. At the same time the cynical nature of the system itself is also portrayed in many neat and subtle ways.

This film is like a book were you need to read between the lines, here you need to see behind the image. To me, being grown up in Soviet Union - it comes naturally in this case and the film grips me with its drama for its entire length having a very moving ending. But probably if you are not fluent in CCCP history and you don't know for example who Beria was, what the laws were like during cult of personality, what was the Belarussian front in World War II, who was Ordzhonikidze - without such little things and many others the film will be either very hard to follow (in this case it probably becomes sort of pretentious art house stile flick) or you just miss it completely and it is going to be just an aged action movie. Well watch it if you can, but it is 9 out of 10 from me.

Alright, listen. Some movies are entertaining. Some make you think. And then there are the rare ones that crawl under your skin and never leave. This is one of those.

No flashy effects. No cheap tricks. Just raw, unfiltered storytelling that hits like a freight train. Set in a world where survival and morality aren't just choices but a constant fight, this film doesn't tell you what to feel-it makes you live it.

The performances? Next-level. You don't just watch these characters-you breathe with them, fear with them, hope with them. The tension? It builds so naturally, so relentlessly, that before you know it, you're gripping the edge of your seat, completely lost in a world that feels dangerously real.

And that's what makes it great. It's not here to comfort you. It's here to challenge you, unsettle you, stay with you long after the credits roll. This isn't just a film-it's an experience.

One of the greatest ever made? No question.