How Long Is “Svoi”?

The Nika Award winner or Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, and Best Screenplay, director Dimitri Meskhiyev's unforgiving war drama follows the plight of three German detention camp escapees who seek refuge in a small village while attempting to reveal the trader in their ranks. August, 1941: The Nazis are advancing on the Eastern front as three Russian soldiers seize an opportunity for escape. Former security officer Tolya (Sergei Garmash), Jewish politico Lifshits (Konstantin Khabensky), and sure shot sniper Mitya (Mikhail Evlanov) were being marched to a detention camp when they made a break from the group to try their luck in the countryside. What better place to seek shelter than on the property of Mitya's father Ivan (Bogdan Stupka)? It would have been the perfect plan, if it weren't for the fact that Ivan is a staunch anti-Soviet in collaboration with the German occupying forces. Unable to turn away his own son, Ivan reluctantly takes in the trio, only to incur the wrath of the local police captain (Fedor Bondarchuk), who promptly arrests Ivan's daughters and demands the soldiers' surrender as ransom.