Anatoliy Verbitskiy

Based on the play of the same name by M. Gorky.

The year is 1940 and Nazi Germany is at the height of its military prowess, having captured most of Europe and eyeing the Soviet Union to the East. The Russian military command suspects hostile intent from Germany and so arranges for its spies to infiltrate ranks of the German military and the SS. Alexander Belov is a Russian spy, who travels from Soviet-held Latvia to Nazi Germany under an alias of Johann Weiss. His mastery of the German language, steel nerves and an ability to manipulate others help him to use his connections in the SS to ascend the ladder of the German intelligence. He uses his position to identify sympathetic Germans, who help him to procure vital intelligence, and to help local resistance movements in their collective fight against Nazism.

Andrei Vysotina, who has just graduated from the Naval Academy, is appointed commander of the ship Derzhavny. The hero challenges the commander of another ship in the Black Sea Fleet, whose wife he was once in love with.

In the summer of 1942, the Soviet army is fighting the Germans on the Don River. Young lieutenant Ogarkov gets lost in the steppe and fails to deliver a redeployment order. For that, he is sentenced to death. Now, another soldier has to lead him across the steppes to his death.

Many years brings the collective-farm postman Arina post to home folks. This village in one corner is calledl; Chistuy Kolodets; in other ; Chistaya Krinitsa Russians and Ukrainians live there. Arina's stories about village people and the contemporaries create big story which in many recalls their favourite songs.

In June 1941, the Extraordinary Defense Headquarters of Leningrad, under the leadership of Zhdanov and Voroshilov, decided to build the Luga defensive line. Heavy fighting west of Pskov forced units of the front to withdraw, and on July 9, Pskov was also abandoned. The battles in the Luga direction held back the enemy. The first attacks of the Germans, intending to cross the Luga line on the move, were repulsed with heavy losses for them.

After graduating from the Faculty of Geology, Vasiliy Ruban goes to Transcarpathia, where he will take part in a prospecting expedition, the object of which is oil fields. A business trip of a young man turns into a quarrel with his girlfriend, who dreams of a graduate school in the capital. Despite the assurance of an experienced engineer in the absence of oil deposits, Vasiliy continues his search, which turns into an unexpected discovery of oily spots in the waters of the river. At the same time, the geologist meets Kseniya, a local girl who has won the heart of a man.

A prince discovers an enchanted beauty turned into a frog by Koschei the Immortal. After Koschei steals her again, the prince goes on a dangerous quest to free the land of the evil.