Danylo Ilchenko

Based on the novel of the same name by Mikhail Sholokhov, about the fate of people broken by the First World War, the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922), about the collapse of the foundations and ideals of the Don Cossacks of Russia at the beginning of the XX century, about the personal tragedy of the protagonist — Grigoriy Melekhov.

In July 1942, in the Second World War, the rearguard of the Russian army protects the bridgehead of the Don River against the German army while the retreating Russian troops cross the bridge. While they move back to the Russian territory through the countryside, the soldiers show their companionship, sentiments, fears and heroism to defend their motherland.

In 1890s Western Ukraine, Ivan Didukh, a proud and ripe Galician farmer, has decided to abandon his ancestral home to emigrate to Canada in search of a better life. His final hours are clouded by both internal and communal discord as his village convenes to ceremonially mark his departure. The celebrations that echo those of a funeral, forecast the imminent death of a man estranged from his motherland, and of an antiquated way of life on the cusp of obsoletion.

David Motuzka, demobilized Red Army soldier, returns to his native village, hoping to see the changes caused by the revolutionary events. But he cannot see no improvement. The village is ruled by the kulaks and David's childhood friend Kornii Matiukha helps them.

The war was over. Like many of her female friends, Sasha Potapova was left a widow. It was hard living without a man’s shoulder to lean on, without love and affection, yet no one had ever seen her crying or despairing. For her strong character, the fellow-villagers elected her a collective farm chairwoman. The work, with its cares and worries, helped all but forget about her personal misfortune and woman’s loneliness. And then she fell in love – a bittersweet, unshared love, but happy anyway…

Winter. At a small station where passing trains stop for only one or two minutes, Marushkin, the driver, meets a new agronomist, Lyusya Krechetova, who has arrived from Leningrad. At first, she looks curiously at her new life, which has neither comfort nor basic amenities. But soon this incomprehensible life, where only the truly passionate live and work, begins to annoy her. Unable to withstand the trials of selfless work, Lucy says goodbye to her new friends and returns home...

At the end of 1943, during the occupation in Odessa, a new specialist Kraft arrives at the shipyard and soon becomes a chief engineer. It never occurred to anyone that a Soviet intelligence officer was hiding under the guise of a leader showing official zeal. At the decisive moment, when the victorious offensive of the Soviet troops forces the German-Romanian invaders to leave Odessa, on the instructions of the Center, Kraft leaves with them for further work behind enemy lines.

Soviet filmmaker Yuri Raisman once more combines political dogma with solid entertainment values in Dream of a Cossack (aka Cavalier of the Golden Star). The title character, played by future director Sergei Bondarchuk (and billed for obscure reasons as Semyon Bondarchuk), is an ex-soldier who returns home to the Kuban region, there to take up life as a farmer. Instead, he galvanizes the local citizenry into participating in a massive construction project, which will result in a new power station and canal. Thus does Raisman offer an prime example of Russian collectivism while making it seem as though it had sprung from individual initiative. Dream of a Cossack is based on a popular novel by S. Babayefsky.