Venice Film Festival 1979
Second Unit
After the liberation of the Kuban by the Soviet Army troops, farmers return home and begin to restore the destroyed economy. Under the leadership of the young chairman, Nadiezdha Pritulyak, growers are working with great enthusiasm.
Mito (as Aleqsandre Jaliashvili)
Banned in the Soviet Union for its "negative" content and never released, Kalatozov was forced to retreat from filmmaking for seven years because of this film. The film sets out to illustrate the old adage, "For want of a nail, the battle was lost," showing how the inferior quality of something so trivial as a nail in a soldier's boot leads inexorably to the capture of an armored train. Kalatozov had intended to demonstrate the crucial and universal importance of efficiency in Soviet industry, but the government decided that his fable gave a negative impression of the Red Army's capabilities.
Director
Prolific labor combined with gymnastics represents the basic means of increasing public productiveness and one of the major forms of creation of New Man. Moreover, physical strength will assist the young Socialist Republics in fighting against their enemy.
