Then it was called beautifully: the performance of international duty. And nobody in the highest power spheres was bothered by the countless deaths of young guys and experienced officers and the fact that this mission was seen by the progressive world and local residents as an intervention.
Violated contract
By many fates, an Afghan kink went through, distorting, crippling or completely destroying. The events of that war - one of the terrible pages in the history of dying totalitarianism - have repeatedly served as a source and occasion for inspiration for filmmakers of our country. Many critics regard the film "The Afghan Break" as one of the best works that raise this topic.
The picture takes place at the end of hostilities: Soviet troops are ready to return to their homeland. Senior lieutenant Steklov arrives in one of the regiments (the guy needs to “check in” in the combat zone, this will help his further career, here’s the high-ranking dad and pissed off). It would seem that the war is over, what could threaten a beginner? Upon the filing of the regiment commander, Nikita Steklov, Michael Bandura, a battle-hardened major, is taken into custody. So that the Soviet units could freely leave someone else's territory, an armistice agreement is concluded. However, Dushmans do not want to retreat and set up an ambush that turned into a bloody massacre for civilians, enemy fighters and for ours ...
Constellation of talent
“The Afghan break” was staged in 1991 by Leningrad director Vladimir Bortko, who at that time became famous for his amazingly organic film adaptation of Bulgakov’s work “Dog Heart”.
To the major role of Major Bandura, he, to the great surprise of his compatriots, invited
Michele Placido. Probably, one of the reasons for such a strange choice was the superpopularity of this artist in our country after a triumphal march on television screens of the mafia saga "Octopus". Placido is the same inimitable commissioner of Cattani for four seasons of crime drama. Steklov was played by the son of Oleg Yankovsky (by the way, who also took part in the work on the film "The Afghan Break": he dubbed the Italian) Philip. A whole constellation of popular artists is what the Afghan Kink is. Actors Aleksey Serebryakov,
Tatyana Dogileva, who had previously starred with Bortko in “Blonde around the corner”, Victor Proskurin, Nina Ruslanova, father and son Krasko,
Mikhail Zhigalov. Plus, they “migrated” later to “Streets of Broken Lights” (the first series of which were also put by Vladimir Bortko) Yuri
Kuznetsov, Victor Bychkov,
Mikhail Trukhin and
Anastasia Melnikova.Everything came together
A strong cast, an extraordinary, soul-turning plot (emerging from the pen of four authors: Alexander Chervinsky, Mikhail Leshchinsky, Ada Petrova, Leonid Bogachuk), wonderful cameraman work by Vladimir Fedosov, piercing music by Vladimir Dashkevich, Alexander Rosenbaum's vocals. All this came together and made the “Afghan Break”, if not a masterpiece, then a very worthy work of modern cinema. And although some participants in the hostilities in Afghanistan criticized the picture, it should be remembered that real events and their embodiment in artistic cinema are still different things.