''Saving Leningrad'', also known as ''Battle of Leningrad'' () is a 2019 Russian

war drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

film written about the

Road of Life The Road of Life () was the set of ice road transport routes across Lake Ladoga to Leningrad during the Second World War. They were the only Soviet winter surface routes into the city while it was besieged by the German Army Group North und ...

, the tragedy of blood "

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

752", which took place on the night of September 16 to 17, 1941, at

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

. 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 Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Few were saved. The film takes place during the Eastern Front in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and focuses on the beginning of the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

. The film was directed by Aleksey Kozlov, 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. ''Saving Leningrad'' was released in the Russian Federation by

Universal Pictures International Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American film production and distribution company headquartered at the Universal Studios complex in Universal City, ...

on January 27, 2019, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the blockade in Saint Petersburg (Then, Leningrad).

Background

RIAN archive 310 Foodstuffs for Leningrad

RIAN archive 397 Cutters carrying foodstuffs to besieged Leningrad on Ladoga Lake

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 The Road of Life () was the set of ice road transport routes across Lake Ladoga to Leningrad during the Second World War. They were the only Soviet winter surface routes into the city while it was besieged by the German Army Group North und ...

. 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.

Plot

In the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during September 1941 there was an emergency evacuation of people from

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

. 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 The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

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 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.

Cast

Production

Filming

The shooting process ran from May through July 2018 and extended 60 shifts. Some of the shooting was done in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Nizhny Novgorod Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Nizhny Novgorod. It has a population of 3,119,115 as of the 2021 Ru ...

. Filming took place in Saint Petersburg and its environs in May 2018 in collaboration with

Lenfilm Lenfilm (, acronym of Leningrad Films) is a Russian production and distribution company with its own film studio located in Saint Petersburg (the city was called Leningrad from 1924 to 1991, thus the name). It is a corporation with its stakes s ...

. In June 2018, additional photographs were taken on the shore of the province of

Lake Ilmen Lake Ilmen (, ) is a large lake in Novgorod Oblast, Russia. A historically important lake, it formed a vital part of the medieval trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The city of Veliky Novgorod, which is a major trade center of the ro ...

in the

Novgorod Oblast Novgorod Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Veliky Novgorod. Some of the oldest Russian cities, including Veliky Novgorod and Staraya Russa, are located in the oblast. The historic m ...

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.

InterMedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to ...

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". 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.

References

External links

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