In constellation of taurus
Technjcolor, 9 reels
Scriptwriters
PIOTR TODOROVSKY, ALEXANDER BURAVSKY with participation of TIMUR SULEYMENOV
Photographers
VLADIMIR KLIMOV, VLADIMIR BASHTA
Art director
ALEXANDER TOLKACHOV
Producer
MIRA TODOROVSKAYA
Production
the 'MYRABEL-FILM' Studio in association with the Russian Television Radio Corporation (RTR)
Casting
ANDREY SCHEGLOV, IVAN ZHIDKOV, VIOLETTA DAVYDOVSKAYA
February 1942. The Stalingrad battle is at its height.
At 100 kilometers to the north in a tiny
village of Shishka laying on a hill in the middle of steppe life still goes on. But the war is present here too. "Killed in battle" notices also come here and there are heard distant explosions, humming of aircraft and cannonade.
The main characters of the cinema story are 16 year old country bumpkin cattleman Vanya, young town dweller Igor and local beauty Kalya. This is a love triangle. Surely Kalya prefers handsome and educated Igor. Vanya is jealous, he suffers and confides his sorrow to his closest friends - the bulls miraculously survived in this frontline village.
A Soviet mounted detachment having got lost in the steppe takes away all the hay from the village and Vanya realizes that the bull are doomed to die of starvation. He decides to go into the steppe in searching of food for the bulls. But why not to with Igor? There in the steppe it would be clear who is who.
With two relays of bulls Vanya an Igor
go into the steppe. All the day long they drag themselves along the steppe till snowstorm begins. The young fellows herd the cattle into a pit and bury themselves in the snow. And it turns out that they have entrenched near a haystack left over from the autumn. But joy of such a godsend was darkened by encountering a German. Either a deserter or a soldier detached from his unit he was hiding on the other side of the same haystack. Catching sight of two fellows the German shoots from sudden surprise and wounds Igor. Having forgotten previous enmity Vanya does all his best for his 'rival' rescuing.
But there is one more character in the film may be not less important than these young heroes. It is the battle itself present in soundtrack of the film. The film ends on scenes of the victory of Stalingrad which was the crucial phase of the Second World War.
The village women are running to the bulls getting stuck in the snow. Young fellows are saved…