Boris Ardov

Based on a famous fairytale by Yuri Olesha.

A Russian war correspondent is drafted into the war and finds himself in the middle of battle. When he loses his party card, however, he is treated as a deserter until he finds help from a kind man. This Soviet war feature was considerably outspoken for the time as it addressed issues such as anti-Stalinism, Siberia and the inhumanity of war. Adapting his screenplay from a book by Constantin Simonov, Alexandre Stolper was responsible for writing as well as directing.

Having lost her parents during the war, Galya was brought up in an orphanage. When the grandfather was rehabilitated, they began to live together. Galya often called Alyosha to repair the phone. After walking around Moscow at night, they realized that they loved each other. Once, after another call, Aleksei was slandered. The boss, not wanting to delve into the essence of the client's complaint, invited Aleksei to apologize. The guy refused — and he was fired from his job. Friends helped him find another job, but he could not convince Galya that he was right. The girl reproached him for cowardice — and the heroes quarrelled...

A group of Soviet military diplomats needs to get to Stockholm. But direct flight is impossible, there is a war going on, so they go to Sweden via Cairo, where they stay for several days. From Cairo, Petrov’s group flies to Cape Town. But the plane our heroes are flying on crashes over the jungles of Africa...