The Forty-first (1956 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Forty-first
Сорок первый


image_size =
caption = DVD cover of The Forty-first
director = Grigori Chukhrai
producer =
writer = Grigori Koltunov
Boris Lavrenyev
narrator =
starring = Izolda Izvitskaya
Oleg Strizhenov
music = Nikolai Kryukov
cinematography = Sergey Urusevsky
editing =
distributor = Mosfilm
released = Start date|1956|10|15 (USSR)
runtime = 88 min.
country = flagicon|Soviet Union USSR
language = Russian
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0049783

"The Forty-first", ( _ru. "Сорок первый", "Sorok pervyy") is a 1956 Soviet film based on the novel of the same name by Boris Lavrenyev. The film was directed by Grigori Chukhrai and starred Izolda Izvitskaya and Oleg Strizhenov. The film is set during the Russian Civil War and tells the story of the romance between a female sniper of the Red Army and an officer of the White Army.

Plot

During the Russian Civil War, in the desert of Central Asia, a detachment of the Red Army is on a reconnaissance mission under the command of Ansenti Yevsyukov (Nikolay Kryuchkov). The only female soldier in the detachment is Maria Filatovna (Izolda Izvitskaya), a sniper who has already killed forty enemy soldiers. As they encounter a detachment of the White Army she tries to shoot the aristocratic Lieutenant Vadim Nikolayevich Govorukha-Otrok (Oleg Strizhenov). He would have been her forty-first victim, but as she misses her target Govorkha is only taken prisoner. The detachment finds out that Govorukha-Otrok is on a mission to deliver secret information from Aleksandr Kolchak to Anton Denikin.

The Red army detachment attempts to return to the headquarter, but is soon struggling with the hostile desert environment. They eventually make it to the Aral Sea, where Maria, Govorukha-Otrok and several other soldiers are taking a boat to be faster at the headquarter. In a storm all soldiers die, and Maria and Govorukha-Otrok are left stranded on an island. They find shelter in a fisherman's hut and are forced to wait for the fisherman to return to the island. During this forced wait they come closer and eventually fall in love. When a boat approaches the island the initially think that the fishermen return to the island. When they realize that the boat is from the White Army, Govorukha-Otrok runs along the beach towards the boat but is shot in the back by Maria.

Production

The film was based on the novel of the same name by Boris Lavrenyevm, which had already been filmed as a silent film by Yakov Protazanov in 1927.

Distribution and responses

"The Forty-First" was released on October 15, 1956 in the Soviet Union and attracted 25.1 million viewers. At the Mosfilm Festival of Young Filmmakers in 1956 the film won in the categories Best Film, Best Actor and Best Cinematography and at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1957 it won a Honorary Diploma. [cite book|last=Zemlianukhin|first=Sergei|coauthors=Miroslava Segida|title=Domashniaia sinemateka 1918–1996 (Домашняя Синематека 1918–1996)|publisher=Duble-D|location=Moscow|date=1996|pages=420|isbn= 5-900902-05-6|language=Russian] At the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, It also won the Special Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. [cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3572/year/1957.html|title=Sorok Pervyi|publisher=Cannes Film Festival|language=French|accessdate=2008-09-05]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0049783|title=Sorok pervyy