Save Leningrad from Russian cinema
In January, on the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the Leningrad siege, cultural figures representing modern Russian cinema began racing to make viewers happy with premieres of films on the theme “how it was.”
The first to hatch was the film cadaver “Holiday” directed by Krasovsky. A frankly stupid, weak and depressingly vulgar film that makes you want to wash your hands after watching it. Perhaps the best thing in the film was the final shots, in which Krasovsky and Father Frost complain about the lack of understanding of officials and ask the audience to contribute as much money as they can.
And on January 27, a memorable date, director Kozlov hastened to please film lovers with the premiere. Unlike "Holiday", the plot of which is completely far-fetched, the film with the pretentious title "Save Leningrad" (earlier title "Barge No. 752") was filmed based on real events, as reported in the annotation to the film.
The plot is based on a real tragedy that took place on Lake Ladoga in the fall of 1941, during the second week of the siege, during fierce battles on the outskirts of Leningrad. On August 30, Nazi troops captured the Mga station, cutting the last railway connecting the city with the rest of the country. On September 8, units of Army Group North occupied the city of Shlisselburg, taking control of the source of the Neva. Apart from air travel, the only route from Leningrad to the mainland and back could only pass through Ladoga. On September 12, the tugboat "Eagle" accomplished the impossible: it delivered two barges with grain and flour across the lake to the besieged city, in the most difficult weather conditions.
On the night of September 17, 1941, the tugboat “Eagle” left Osinovets Bay for Novaya Ladoga, pulling barge No. 752, which took on board (according to various sources) from 1100 to 1500 passengers, among whom were women, children, and employees of various departments , as well as a platoon of cadets from the Leningrad Military Engineering School. The barge had to travel 160 km across the lake.
Anyone who has never been to Ladoga hardly knows what an insidious lake it is.
Storms here are sometimes worse than on the open sea. In the pre-war period, they preferred not to mess with Ladoga and cargo was transported bypassing the lake, along shipping canals along the shore. For this reason, in Leningrad there were practically no ships capable of withstanding the impact of the elements. But there was no other choice and no other route for Leningrad during the siege.
Barge No. 752 set out in ideal weather, but on the night of September 17, weather conditions deteriorated sharply and a storm of 7-8 points began on the lake, breaking the towing cable between the “Eagle” and the barge filled with people. The ship, not suitable for sailing in stormy weather, began to sink. The waves washed people overboard not only from the deck, but even from the hold. An SOS signal was sent to attract nearby ships to help rescue people.
Hitler's aircraft were the first to respond to the distress signal. The “Noble Knights of the Lufwaffe” staged a massacre over the raging lake, shooting people in distress as if at a shooting gallery.
There is no exact data on the dead passengers of barge No. 752, but it is estimated that more than a thousand people died on that terrible night. The “Eagle” and the gunboat “Selemzha”, which arrived in time, rescued 188 people from the stormy water under an air raid. There are very few women and no children on the list of those rescued - all of them were taken by the elements and the bullets of fascist pilots.
The rescue operation was led by captain 3rd rank Vladimir Yuryevich Braman. By the way, this man fought on the submarine K-1942 in 21 and participated in the torpedoing of the German battleship Tirpitz.
Barge No. 752 is often called the “Ladoga Titanic”. Her tragedy is shocking, but it is not unique. During the first military navigation on Ladoga, 5 tugboats and 46 barges sank due to storms and enemy air raids. Along the 160-kilometer section of the route, people died in dozens and hundreds. But much more were saved: over 33 thousand people. More than 20 thousand military personnel were delivered to Leningrad along the same route.
But let's get back to the film.
Frankly speaking, there is little documentary in it, just as there are no real prototypes of the heroes - just spherical characters in a vacuum. In the center of the plot, as usual, is the love-carrot between the artillery cadet Kostya and the girl Nastya, who has - what a surprise! - repressed dad.
On the barge, the lovers (completely by accident) meet the vile NKVD captain Petruchik, who was once in charge of the case of Nastya’s father, carrying out a top secret and especially important mission. Despite this awkward detail, the NKVD officer turned out to be not averse to hitting on the pretty girl whom he had spoiled so much in life.
Director Kozlov openly plagiarized the theme of love and the third extra scoundrel from Cameron's Titanic. The obsessive NKVD captain Petruchik is shockingly reminiscent in his habits of the hero-villain played by Billy Zane, who always gets in the way of lovers.
The episode with the orchestra playing in the hold of the sinking barge also left no doubt about the source from which director Kozlov drew his inspiration.
And the main character’s wristwatch can be confidently called the “Heart of Ladoga” by analogy with the “Heart of the Ocean” diamond from “Titanic”.
It is interesting that at the press conference that opened the screening of the film “Save Leningrad,” director Kozlov vehemently denied any parallels with “Titanic,” denying the obvious.
But it was not the Titanic alone that served as the donor for “Save Leningrad”. It was no less obvious that in the creative process the film workers decided to plagiarize Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.
Kozlov was prevented from filming his own version of the landing on the Omaha section of the coast by the framework of a disaster film. And for the sake of their expansion, the wildest plot leaps were undertaken from a sinking barge to a landing on the banks of the Neva, which had not yet happened in mid-September 1941.
In general, for the sake of the coastline pitted with craters, mountains of corpses, explosions and tracer bursts, the director once again had to sacrifice the historical truth stated in the film.
Kozlov at the same press conference said that he was proud of the battle scenes and was even ready to share the most delicious episodes with Spielberg himself.
However, a piece from “Private Ryan” was nevertheless transferred to the sinking barge. The defenders fired so skillfully at the German planes that they dropped as many as two Messers with two rifle shots. Where is Pokryshkin?
No matter how hard director Kozlov tried, he never made it to “Titanic” and “Private Ryan”. And even “Burnt by the Sun - 2” was not on par: the German pilots in his film did not stick their asses out of the cockpits, and the topic of boobs remained unsolved.
Actually, Kozlov also failed to squeeze drama out of the disaster film. The film is absolutely sterile in terms of emotions and does not reveal the scale of the tragedy. Its essence in a nutshell is how a couple in love floats on a rusty trough, and someone constantly interferes with them. War, NKVD, some airplanes...
The ending of the film only emphasizes this. Having escaped from a (sort of) utter hell, having survived the deaths of hundreds of people, the surviving lovers meet and act as if they had just seen each other after a boring boat trip spent apart.
It remains to add that this sad story is told to the viewer in the best traditions of “Titanic” by the elderly Nastya. Surprisingly, it wasn’t from the Mir spacecraft from the bottom of Ladoga.
In general, it didn’t turn out to be a masterpiece as expected. And just a good movie that you’ll want to watch again. Another movie slag in a sad series of equally wretched films. What’s most offensive is that his premiere was brought forward to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the blockade. Like they took a shit at the front door.
The only way to overcome the vile aftertaste is to rewatch the films “Baltic Sky” and “Green Chains” with the brilliant Pavel Luspekayev, and even “Izhora Battalion”. Perhaps the best films about the siege of Leningrad. What would we do without the cultural heritage of the USSR?
There is an opinion that the only way to preserve the viewer’s sense of beauty is to completely prohibit filmmakers from making films about the war.
They do not instill any patriotism. You cannot instill patriotism by defaming and causing disgust towards your own history. So as not to be surprised later - where do the “koli from Urengoy” come from and why yesterday’s Hitler’s henchmen at the state level willingly raise their hind legs to our Victory.
English version :: Read in English : Saving Leningrad from Russian Cinema