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Yulia Smorodova
The amateur WW2 feature film "Rzhev 43" was shot on location near Tver (170km north off Moscow). The movie is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Rzhev, a Soviet City of Military Glory, from the Nazi invaders.
Yulia Smorodova
The film is a social project organized by the “Opolchenets” search unit, with the active participation of historical re-enactment clubs in Tver, Rzhev, Konakovo, Klin, and other towns and cities. Its author, screenwriter and director 22-year-old Stanislav Lukinov, is the leader of Opolchenets.
Yulia Smorodova
Some of the actors are non-professionals, mainly searchers and re-enactors from Tver and the surrounding region. Assistance with props was provided by the Tver Museum of the Kalinin Front. The movie has no sponsors.
Yulia Smorodova
If people dress up in Soviet and German military uniforms and take up arms, what does it all mean? Is the desire to simulate war about getting an adrenaline fix, like wrecking the suspension on a jeep or running through the woods in paintball garb?
Yulia Smorodova
Maybe they're not indifferent to what happened before they were born, when their relatives died for the sake of life without war? They are actors in a film, and the reward is not money, but something more personal.
Yulia Smorodova
The film tells the story of a rookie soldier who winds up on the Kalinin Front in the first year of the war, his military path, and his life at the front.
Yulia Smorodova
In the fall of 1942, the commander of the regiment orders the battalion to seize the high ground that controls access to the road, and to hold it until the arrival of the main forces. The attack commences the next morning.
Yulia Smorodova
Since the defense is quite strong and the previous attacks have not been successful, surprise is their main weapon. Striking swiftly, the battalion captures the elevated area, but with heavy losses. It prepares for a possible retaliatory strike, which follows literally in just one hour. Of the 20 not killed in the initial operation, only four survive the German counter offensive.
Yulia Smorodova
Communication is down, reinforcements are nowhere to be seen, and they are plagued by thoughts of what to do next: head back to base where they face a penal unit or execution for failure to implement orders, or stay and await certain death...
Yulia Smorodova
"Rzhev 43" was released at the beginning of the year to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Rzhev, which was celebrated in March 2013. It has been screened by several film clubs in Tver.
