Pirates of the 20th Century

"The Pirates of 20th Century" ( _ru. Пираты 20 века, Piraty XX veka), 1979, is a Soviet Action/Adventure film about modern piracy. The film was directed by Boris Durov, the story was written by Boris Durov and Stanislav Govorukhin.

The film was the leader of Soviet distribution in 1980 and had 87.6 million viewers. [ [http://www.kinokultura.com/plus/prokat2.html Prokat2 ] ]

Plot

Action begins in some South-Eastern country. A chain of military trucks, filled by well-armed gunmen rolls into a territory of seaport. Trucks stop near the pier where Soviet cargo ship "Nezjin" is anchored. An agent of local pharmaceutical company meets a Captain of Soviet vessel and talks to him about cargo, medical opium, delivered by military trucks. Soviet captain mentions that hospitals of the USSR critically need this kind of cargo. Soon after that an agent of pharmaceutical company is seen inside a car, speaking to someone via walkie-talkie. He says "be ready" to his invisible correpondant. Later MV Nezjin, carrying medical opium, leaves foreign port. The ship is destined to Vladivostok, a Russian point of destination and crewmen do their everyday routine. Suddenly, the watchman cries "man overboard" and the captain orders to stop engine and rescue the stranded swimmer. The boat from Nezjin picks up a man who later calls himself as Salikh, the only survived sailor from a foreign merchant ship. Salikh told to Russians that his ship suddenly capsized during a heavy storm and his crewmates were fighting for places in rescue boats. Shortly after that Soviet captain was informed about an unknown ship, drifting in the sea. The ship, called "Mercury", is drifting near by Nezjin, without any ensign or flag on her mast.There are no people on her deck, no activity is seen at all. Mercury seems to be abandoned. Captain of Nezjin decided to send four men to observe Mercury's decks and compartments and offer a help to possible survivors. But the abandoned ship turns out a trap for the Soviets. Looking at empty decks of Mercury, no one of Russian crewmembers pays any attention to Salikh. At the very time, Salikh picks up an axe from ship's firefighting kit, then comes into radio room of Soviet vessel and attacks a radio operator, killing him. After that Salikh destroys Nezjin's radiostation. Suddenly, Mercury runs her engines and moves direct to Nezjin, with increasing velocity. At the very moment Nezjin's crew see bodies of their crewmates, floating in a water behind fast moving Mercury. Soviet captain understand that his ship gets attacked by pirates. He orders to run engines and cries by intercom to machine compartment "full speed ahead". But Mercury already rams Nezjin's board and pirates begin to shoot at Nezjin's crew by assault rifles and machine guns. Plenty of grappling hooks tie boards of ships together. While boarding Nejzin, pirates brutally kill Russian crewmembers who dare to fight them. A bit earlier Sergey, the chief-mate of Nejzin, discovers dead radio operator and decide to find Salikh. Chasing Salikh in a corridor Sergey makes an attempt to stop him. But foreign sailor shows good skills of martial arts and quickly attacks chief-mate. Sergey collapsed. Soon after pirates push remaining Russians into crew compartments and begin to offload medical opium to Mercury. The captain of pirates thanks Salikh for successful mission and orders him to blow up Nejzin together with her crew. Russians are left to die on a sinking ship but they manage to escape and now must fight the pirates for survival.

Cast

* Nikolai Yeryomenko jr. as "Sergej Sergejitsch" (Chief Mate)
* Pyotr Velyaminov as "Iwan Iljitsch" (Soviet Captain)
* Talgat Nigmatulin as "Salikh"
* Rein Aren as "Captain of Pirates"
* Dilorom Kambarova as "Island girl "
* Natalya Kharakhorina as "Mascha"
* Dzhigangir Shakhmuradov as "Noah"
* Yuri Kutyrev as "Shweiggert"
* Tadeush Kasyanov as "Bosun"
* Maya Eglite
* Viktor Zhiganov
* Georgi Martirosyan
* Leonid Trutnev
* Vladimir Yepiskoposyan
* K. Aminov

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151987/ Piraty XX veka] , IMDb entry
* [http://www.jurassicdvd.com/catalog/popup_image.php/pID/1159 Poster]
* [http://films.warhead.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=840VP War-Head]