451 meters above sea level or reverse thrust ... in the seventies A firefighter's job is good, says the old joke, but like a fire, at least quit. But the hero of the film, the head of the rural fire department Savle, on the contrary, the chairman promised to fire the damn grandmother with the whole team if they do not prove their effectiveness in the near future, so they really need a small victorious fire in the entrusted territory.
The team, of course, is trying, training, only they have everything good with the local flavor. What is serious and very impressive we will see twenty years later in the blockbuster “Reverse traction”, we here slowly play three elderly Georgian firefighters, and given them a fighter of the border troops Yegor.
Firemaster Saule is a thorough person and does not like different manifestations of frivolity. Books, like his bourgeois colleagues in a well-known dystopia, he certainly does not burn, moreover, the printed charter of the fire service is immensely respected and read aloud. However, he strongly demands to stop various dubious torchlight processions through the streets of his native village and dancing on the ruins of the 14th century chapel, which is arranged by the maiden Taplo.
And most importantly, in no case can we allow that the fire spark ran between her and the valuable young specialist Yegor, otherwise the guy will not think about the service.
This film was shown on all-Union television only once, in 1979, it turns out that I was only six years old at the time, but strangely enough I remember it. I remember shiny copper helmets, an old, painted red car, barely breathing on the bumps of mountain roads, and the scene as running on foot, with fire extinguishers ready, rural firefighters are met by a district fire department car, already returning from a fire. Maybe because recently near our house, too, there was a fire (burned just a wooden garage in the yards) and the memories of the real firefighters, on whom the whole house poured out then, superimposed on the impressions of the film.
The script of the film was written by the famous Rezo Gabriadze (“Do not grieve!”, “Mimino”, “Kin-dza-dza”), and the director of the documentary film was Guram Pataraya, who has only two feature films in the filmography. Well, now this film can be considered a kind of document. A document of the time when people were less fussy (even in a fire) and just tried to live as they could. Of course, trying not to violate fire safety rules.