Historical drama. The film adaptation of the story "Saturn is almost invisible" by Soviet writer Vasily Ivanovich Ardamatsky, which, in turn, is based on the real biography of Soviet intelligence officer Alexander Ivanovich Kozlov. And since I have not read the original story, I will evaluate the film adaptation as an independent work. And the marathon of Soviet film intelligence officers of the Great Patriotic War continues. And I knew about this trilogy of paintings for a long time, but I still couldn't find the time to look at them, and now I decided to fix this important gap. And here's my brief opinion - The beginning of the Saturn trilogy. I want to note right away that there are no flaws in the picture (except for the fact that the picture needs to be urgently restored, because now its quality leaves much to be desired), so I will finish such an important introduction, and move on to the advantages of this magnificent and intense military drama.
So, here they are:
1. Scenario - June 22, 1941. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union against fascist Germany and its allies and satellites began. Soviet intelligence finds out that the German intelligence school of the 103rd Abverkommando, known by the call sign "Saturn", is operating against us in the main, Moscow direction, and its sabotage is causing very severe damage to the troops of the Red Army, which is defending itself and retreating closer to Moscow. The situation is restless and extremely alarming, so the Soviet command decides to introduce its man into Saturn in order to find out about all the plans and sabotage of the Abwehr in these difficult days. The scout Krylov was ordered to complete this task, and he goes to the occupied territory under the guise of Mikhail Kramer - Volksdeutsche. He manages to successfully infiltrate Saturn, which becomes a great success for Soviet intelligence. And the hero even manages to carry out a number of dangerous operations to disrupt the Abwehr sabotage. The finale ends on a high note, because we will learn the continuation of Krylov's service in the second and third parts. And so the impression is good, everything looks and listens in one breath, and the dialogues are built in such a way that you believe that real people are saying it. And the atmosphere is perfectly conveyed.
2. The battle of intelligence - the GRU of the USSR and the Abwehr confront each other in 1941, when the fate of not only our country, but the whole world was being decided on our land. And the intelligence services of both countries are well represented, because the Abwehr at this point in time is the best intelligence in the world, having personnel, and experience in conducting joint operations with army units, and the Abwehr has really concentrated the best forces against the Soviet Union. Whereas the GRU in the first months of the war found itself in a difficult position (the rapid advance of the Germans, communication problems, lack of time for thorough preparation for operations), so the successful introduction of its people sometimes depended on banal luck, so the success of Krylov's introduction is one of the few successes that will bear fruit in the future. The Abwehr is represented not by a bunch of fascist fanatics, but by a tough and pragmatic octopus that stretches its tentacles in all directions of the life of the Soviet Union in order to study them and then destroy them. And how great the behavior of Krylov looks, who in such an environment has never demonstrated despondency.
3. The situation of 1941 - crowds of Soviet prisoners, filtration camps, recruitment by the Abwehr of captured agents to be thrown into the Soviet rear, victorious relations of the German Reich over the Soviet Union, bitterness and doubts of traitors who now serve the fascists, and so on. The creators, with a clearly small budget, managed to recreate the situation of the alarming 1941.
4. Costumes and scenery - looking at the screen, you believe that it is the Soviet Union on different sides of the front, although the creators did not spoil us with various details, and it was not really necessary, because they showed the main thing.
A little about the main characters:
1. Sergey Krylov (Mikhail Kramer), performed by Mikhail Volkov, is a career Soviet intelligence officer with experience who is sent to the Saturn intelligence school with an extremely dangerous task, virtually unaccompanied and without communication, which is why the task may be his last. Smart, quick-witted, has empathy, with a good memory. Mikhail Davidovich was very convincing in this role. Bravo!
2. General Nikolai Timerin, performed by Georgy Zhzhenov, is Krylov's boss, who defends his employee in every possible way from attacks and doubts of his superiors. In addition to Krylov, he takes care of his other scouts in every possible way, and even in the most tense days of the defense of Moscow, he does not leave his post, which characterizes him as a brave and determined person. Georgy Stepanovich was great in this role. Bravo!
And the difficult service of the scout Kramer will continue in the film "The End of Saturn", but we will talk about it next time.
My rating is 10 out of 10 and my recommendation for viewing!
