Atanas Velikov

In this routine World War II drama by Bulgarian director Doutcho Mundrov, a group of doomed POWs work together to keep their own dignity and ethical standards high. As the prisoners interact against a background of strife, imprisonment, and references to a rising Communist presence, they come to discover that there is an outside informer passing on information to the enemy. Although they face impending execution, they decide to take steps to end the informer's career.

The film is dedicated to the uprising, which broke out in Bulgaria in September 1923. All characters, with the exception of the leaders of the uprising Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil Kolarov, are symbolic characters. The central figures, Stefan and Peter, impersonate the motive forces behind the uprising - the workers and the peasants. They are involved in worker's strikes, in the stormy events of the First World War and the Soldier's uprising in 1918. They also participate in the bloody clashes of the September uprising and suffer its defeat after they have seen too late the need for concerted action by communists and agrarians.