Cinema
Two Soldiers
Два бойца
Leonid Lukov · 1943
Synopsis
In 1941, on the Leningrad front, two soldiers serve in the same unit: Arkady Dyubuin, a machine gunner from Odessa, and Sasha Svintsov, a metalworker from the Urals. A friendship binds them through the fighting. During a one-day leave in Leningrad, they visit a young girl, Tasya, and a joke by Arkady about Sasha's feelings sets the two men at odds for a time. Between battles, Arkady sings for his comrades.
Context
The screenplay by Evgeny Gabrilovich adapts a novel by Lev Slavin; the film was shot at the Tashkent studio, where the studios had been evacuated, and was released on 6 October 1943. Mark Bernes plays Arkady and Boris Andreyev plays Sasha. The songs are by Nikita Bogoslovsky; the one Bernes sings, “The Night Is Dark”, made the actor a lasting celebrity.
Who it is for
A war film of about an hour and a quarter, as much comedy as drama.
Prizes and reception
The Cinémathèque française singles out one of the most famous songs of the war, performed in it by Mark Bernes.