"The Russians." Russians everywhere! . ? After Vasily Levin’s vivid, emotional, empathetic film The Tale of First Love (1957), I expected to see something similar in this picture. The beginning, indeed, set on similar emotions - exotic (albeit filmed in Sukhumi), light verbal pickings of former opponents in the war, the "brotherhood" of Soviet and German sailors. The seeming idyll of “non-resistance” quickly ended, because the German officer, offended by the long-standing defeat, was not going to forget anything, much less to forgive. All this was tuned to the “spying” theme, which sinned many films of those years. But here, a hurricane intervened in the script, and I had the impression that the second half of the film was shot by another director. Of course, within the framework of the “ideological order” Soviet sailors should look head and shoulders higher than the same German cadets, but the scenes of the hurricane seem to be glued “from another opera”.
It is clear that at that time the relations between the Soviet Union and Germany were not easy – there were quite influential circles in West Germany who believed that the Soviet Union should “pay” for the creation of a security system in Europe and for its own security. But why put all this on the screen? It would be enough for a former submariner, who fiercely hates the Union, for the fact that his family estate remained in the territory of the GDR. And here are simple cadets who, as a child, could hardly remember the war? And to show them in such an unpleasant way was certainly not worth it. Katya and Eugene’s romantic line also looks a little far-fetched. Their relationship seems artificial. In my opinion, the most striking character of the picture is Vasily Lanova in the role of Fyodor Khmara. His actions, though impulsive, but entirely within the framework of his character - honest, open, uncompromising. His feelings for Katya are like an open book. But Katya herself does not even want to look into it, although at the beginning of the picture a couple of episodes allowed to hope for a certain development of events. The finale didn't accentuate, didn't answer questions, He just "curtailed" the action - like he slammed the door. There was a feeling of slight perplexity: “Is this all?” But the potential was – it was only necessary to spin the timekeeping a little, allowing the characters to perform ordinary deeds, rather than recite slogans.
Alien waves splash at the helm, alien moons in the windows of the ship. And there, in the native side, is a thin, thin and very, very warm earth. ( "There, in the native side" music by P. Todorovskiy, words by G. Pozhenyan)