Иничегобольше

The first title for this film was “The Allies.” The film is about the coalition formed between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA against Hitler, formed as rebuff to the aggressive fascism of Germany during the World War II. Unique archive footage from the time, shot by cameramen from the different countries at war, here becomes associated by the film–maker with a contemporary meditation on the post–war destiny of civilisation, on the humanitarian losses for both sides and on finding the uncertain hope for a world unity to counteract evil.The film is based on unexpected editing tempos, on the musical associations that arrange the images in our minds.The Allied leaders, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, are included in a mosaic of otherwise anonymous but real people, those who determined the character of this tragic epoch as much as these great political figures — if not more so. The tragic atmosphere of the war and the times created in this film was unacceptable for the Central TV authorities even though they had commissioned the film in anticipation of the Fortieth Anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany. Sokurov's film did not answer the requirement of propaganda and was “shelved” — that is, hidden from its spectators. In the Perestroika years, the film was legally shown for the first time.