Saving Leningrad

Saving Leningrad, also known as Battle of Leningrad (Russian: Спасти Ленинград) is a 2019 Russian war drama film written about the Road of Life, the tragedy of blood "barge 752", which took place on the night of September 16 to 17, 1941, at Lake Ladoga. During the evacuation of people from Leningrad, the barge was bombed by Nazi warplanes and went to the bottom, killing more than 1,000 people. At the same time, 460 people were killed in a barge towed by the gunship, "Selemdzha", which was carrying fuel and military supplies to Leningrad. Few were saved. The film takes place during the Eastern Front in World War II and focuses on the beginning of the Siege of Leningrad.

Saving Leningrad
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAleksey Kozlov
Produced by
  • Aleksey Kozlov
  • Arkady Fateev
  • Anton Dementiev
  • Elena Gromova
Written byAleksey Kozlov
Starring
  • Maria Melnikova
  • Andrey Mironov-Udalov
  • Gela Meskhi
  • Anastasiya Melnikova
  • Valeriy Degtyar
  • Vitaliy Kishchenko
  • Aleksey Shevchenkov
  • Boris Shcherbakov
Music by
Cinematography
  • Aleksey Doronkin
  • Gleb Vavilov
Edited by
  • Anton Dementiev
  • Aleksey Maklakov
Production
company
Studio AVK
Algous studio
Distributed byUniversal Pictures Russia
All Media Company
NTV
Release date
  • January 27, 2019 (2019-01-27) (Russia)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguageRussian
Budget₽237 million
Box office₽202 million
$3,068,838[1]

The film was directed by Aleksey Kozlov,[2][3] who co-wrote the screenplay and produced by Arkady Fateev. It stars Maria Melnikova as Nastya Tkachyova, Andrey Mironov-Udalov as cadet Kostya Gorelov, as well as Gela Meskhi, Anastasiya Melnikova in their debut cinematic roles.[4]

Saving Leningrad was released in the Russian Federation by Universal Pictures International on January 27, 2019,[5] on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the blockade in Saint Petersburg (Then, Leningrad).[6][7]

Background
Foodstuffs delivered to besieged Leningrad on a barge on Lake Ladoga.
Cutters carrying foodstuffs to besieged Leningrad on Lake Ladoga.

Leningraders, sent to evacuation in Lake Ladoga, became victims of flooding of the barge at number 752. (ru)

A story based on real events of the imprint of barge number 752 which was used as a fishing boat and supplied food to the besieged Leningrad on the Road of life. On the night of September 17, 1941, during the evacuation of people from Leningrad, the barge leaked and sank in the depths of the Ladoga Lake with a thousand people on it. At the same time, 460 people died on a barge towed by the boat "Selemzha", which carried military reinforcements to Leningrad. Together with "Selemzha", The boat "Oryol" helped to tow the barge and together they managed to save 240 people, 216 and 24 people respectively. A total of 433 cadets, 132 graduates of the Military Medical Academy, 8 junior officers, 36 officers and 46 women, as well as all those who were on the barge with their children and 30 civilian workers and members of the Naval Medical Academy and the Navy's Hydrographic Administration, which included more than 685 people).

In addition, a whole class of cadets of the Leningrad Military School of Engineering and the students of the vocational school, along with officers, women and all the children and technical and artillery personnel who were with them, perished. Among those who survived were 184 people (160 who were brought to the Oryol and 24 to the Selemzha), which belonged to the Naval Medical Academy and the Navy's Hydrographic Administration, and another 56 civilians.[8][9]

Plot

In the Soviet Union during September 1941 there was an emergency evacuation of people from Leningrad across Lake Ladoga. By a twist of fate, a young couple, cadet-gunner Kostya Gorelov and his girlfriend Nastya Tkachyova, are on board the dilapidated barge 752, the purpose of which is the evacuation of the inhabitants of the Siege of Leningrad. The barge is badly worn out, but Nikolai Gorelov, Kostya’s father, taking responsibility, ordered it loaded with over 1,000 people, among them his son. Among the evacuees is NKVD investigator Vadim Petruchik, who led the case against Nastya's father.

The case of the repressed father Nastya was reviewed. He was released and sent to the front, to the same section of the front as the barge. The cadets, who were marching to the barge were stopped, and the cadets-gunners were sent to the take back the channel.

At night, the ship gets into a storm and suffers disaster. At the site of the tragedy, the first to come are not rescuers, but enemy aircraft.[10]

Cast
  • Maria Melnikova as Anastasiya Alexandrovna 'Nastya' Tkachyova
    Nastya Tkachyova, a schoolgirl in Leningrad.
  • Andrey Mironov-Udalov as Konstantin Nikolaevich 'Kostya' Gorelov
    Kostya Gorelov graduated from a military school, and a Soviet Army.
  • Gela Meskhi as Vadim Petruchik, investigator of the NKVD
  • Anastasiya Melnikova as Mariya Nikolaevna Tkachyova, Nastya's mother
  • Valeriy Degtyar as Alexandr Naumovich Tkachyov, Nastya's father
  • Vitaliy Kishchenko as Colonel Nikolai Gorelov, Kostya's father
  • Aleksey Shevchenkov as Erofeev
  • Boris Shcherbakov as chief of staff
  • Sergey Zharkov as Gena Bukin, a Soviet Army
  • Ivan Lyrchikov as Andrey Babintsev, a Soviet Army
  • Yesenia Raevskaya as Pomerantseva
  • Vadim Andreyev as Skvortsov
  • Inga Strelkova-Oboldina as Galochka, music teacher
  • Vladimir Petrov as Sasha
  • Vladimir Seleznev as Yarygin
  • Mikhail Morozov as Vitya
  • Evgenia Lyubimova as Lyusya
  • Pavel Grigoriev as Mikhail Efimovich
  • Natalya Tkachenko as Liza
  • Maria Kapustinskaya as Sveta Goncharova
  • Stepan Yakovlev as Seryozha
  • Elena Zimina as Zoya

Production

Filming

The shooting process ran from May through July 2018 and extended 60 shifts. Some of the shooting was done in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

Filming took place in Saint Petersburg and its environs in May 2018 in collaboration with Lenfilm. In June 2018, additional photographs were taken on the shore of the province of Lake Ilmen in the Novgorod Oblast.

Release

Saving Leningrad was released in the Russian Federation by Universal Pictures Russia on January 27, 2019.

Reception

The film received average ratings from film critics. On the Megacritic website it scored 5.8 points out of 10 according to 12 reviews.[11] InterMedia columnist Denis Stupnikov wrote: "The film becomes a hymn to mutual assistance, thanks to which realistically outlined the shortcomings of each character in the end completely leveled".[12]

Others criticized the film for poor acting, primitive direction, inconsistency with real events, illogical behavior of characters, poor ragged editing, and a disjointed script. Why the film failed at the box office.[13]

gollark: If it were server friendlier I'd want to switch ARC over to it.
gollark: Well, that's annoying.
gollark: 3D objects?
gollark: Please release it, even if only a half-functional 3D thing.
gollark: ARCore?

See also

References
  1. "Saving Leningrad (2019)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  2. "В кинотеатрах сети "Москино" покажут пять фильмов Такеши Китано" [Five films by Takeshi Kitano will be shown in cinemas of the Moskino network]. Moscow24.ru (in Russian). October 1, 2018.
  3. Korolkova, Anastasia (September 29, 2018). "Опубликован первый трейлер военной драмы "Спасти Ленинград"" [Published the first trailer for the war drama film Saving Leningrad] (in Russian). Evo-rus.com.
  4. "Flucht aus Leningrad Trailer OV". Filmstarts.
  5. "Вышел первый трейлер фильма Алексея Козлова "Спасти Ленинград"" [The first trailer for Aleksey Kozlov’s film Saving Leningrad has been released] (in Russian). www.soyuz.ru. September 28, 2018.
  6. "On the day of the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, the film Save Leningrad (Saving Leningrad)". Tech2.Org.
  7. "Action on the blood. As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad on movie screens, there is a film by Alexei Kozlov entitled Save Leningrad (Saving Leningrad)". Tech2.Org.
  8. Ladoga "Titanic": unknown data on the blockade in the drama "Save Leningrad"
  9. "The disaster film Save Leningrad (Saving Leningrad). Was there a happy ending?". Tech2.Org.
  10. "Режиссер картины "Спасти Ленинград" Алексей Козлов: "Наш фильм сможет пробудить интерес зрителя к истории баржи 752"" [Director of the film Saving Leningrad by Aleksey Kozlov: «Our film will be able to arouse the viewer's interest in the history of barge 752»]. Kinoafisha.info (in Russian). August 17, 2018.
  11. "Спасти Ленинград". Megacritic.ru. Retrieved February 15, 2019. (in Russian).
  12. Stupnikov, Denis (January 23, 2019). "Рецензия: "Спасти Ленинград". Обретение "Дороги жизни"" [Review: Saving Leningrad. Finding the "Road of Life"]. InterMedia (agency) (in Russian). Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  13. "Спасти Ленинград (2019)". LiveJournal (in Russian).
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