Vadim SHMELYEV
Вадим ШМЕЛЕВ
Vadim CHMELEV
Russia, 2020, 136mn 
fiction
Podolskiye kursanty
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Подольские курсанты

 

 The Last Frontier

 La Ligne de feu

 
Directed by : Vadim SHMELYEV (Вадим ШМЕЛЕВ)
Writing credits : Vyacheslav FETISOV (Вячеслав ФЕТИСОВ), Vadim SHMELYEV (Вадим ШМЕЛЕВ), Igor UGOLNIKOV (Игорь УГОЛЬНИКОВ)
 
Cast
Aleksey BARDUKOV (Алексей БАРДУКОВ) ...Afanassy
Yevgeni DYATLOV (Евгений ДЯТЛОВ) ...Strelbitskiy
Sergey BEZRUKOV (Сергей БЕЗРУКОВ) ...Starchak
Liubov KONSTANTINOVA (Любовь КОНСТАНТИНОВА) ...Masha
Guram BABLISHVILI (Гурам БАБЛИШВИЛИ)
Roman MADIANOV (Роман МАДЯНОВ)
Yekaterina REDNIKOVA (Екатерина РЕДНИКОВА)
Dmitry SOLOMYKIN (Дмитрий СОЛОМЫКИН)
 
Cinematography : Andrey GURKIN (Андрей ГУРКИН)
Production design : Konstantin PAKHOTIN (Константин ПАХОТИН)
Music : Yuri POTEYENKO (Юрий ПОТЕЕНКО)
Produced by : Yevgeni AYZIKOVICH (Евгений АЙЗИКОВИЧ), Igor FURMANYUK (Игорь ФУРМАНЮК), Igor UGOLNIKOV (Игорь УГОЛЬНИКОВ)
Companies : Studio "Voenfilm"
Film revenue in Russia : 1.226 million dollars
Spectators : 366 079
Release Date in Russia : 04/11/2020
 
Sites : IMDb, Kinopoisk
VOD or DVD release in France : 2021-07-07, Site

DVD with subtitles
Editor : Program Store. 2021. Titre : La Ligne de feu.
Après l'invasion de l'Union Soviétique en juin 1941 (Opération Barbarossa), les blindés du IIIème Reich sont à 200 km de Moscou début octobre et rien ne semble pouvoir les arrêter. Seule solution pour le Haut-Commandement de l'Armée Rouge : envoyer les 3 500 élèves-officiers de l'école militaire de Podolsk tenir coûte que coûte la ligne Ilyinsky jusqu'à l'arrivée des renforts.

Plot synopsis
The film tells the story of the Podolsk cadets' heroic stand outside Moscow in October 1941. Cadets from the Podolsk infantry and artillery schools were sent to the Ilyinsky line of defense, fighting alongside units from the Soviet 43rd Army to hold back the German advance until reinforcements arrived. Hopelessly outnumbered, young men in their teens laid down their lives in a battle lasting almost two weeks to obstruct the far superior German forces advancing towards Moscow. This film is not only about war. It is also about love, true camaraderie, and the path from boyhood to manhood. Around 3,500 cadets and their commanding officers were sent to hold up the last line of defense outside Moscow. Most of them remained there for eternity.
 

commentaries
La ligne de feu : le 7 juillet, une fresque guerrière sur un fait d’armes de 1941, François COULAUD, avcesar.com, 2021
Vadim Shmelev: The Final Stand (Podol’skie kursanty, 2020), Ian GARNER, Kinokultura, 2021
Russia’s best WWII film in recent years, Boris EGOROV, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2020
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- War in contemporary Russian cinema, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Stalin in contemporary Russian cinema, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Russian Film Festival in Niort, Niort (France), 2022
- Festival de cinéma russe à Montpellier, Montpellier (France), 2021
- Soirées du cinéma russe de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (France), 2021
- VOD or DVD release in France of the film:, Different cities (France), 2021
- FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of East European Cinema, Cottbus (Germany), 2021

Images