The Star

2002 1h 37m RU

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 44

WarDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In the summer of 1944, the Nazi Armies prepare a massive Tank Division named 'Viking" for the offensive on occupied Russian land. The Russian Army's special group of seven snipers named "Zvezda" is sent for a reconnaissance operation behind the enemy lines in the back of the Nazi Tank Division. Two previous Russian groups never came back. The seven Russians know that they are going to an almost certain Death for the sake of Victory.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Igor Petrenko
Travkin
Artyom Semakin
Vorobei
Aleksey Panin
Mamochkin
Aleksei Kravchenko
Anikanov
Anatoliy Gushchin
Bykov
Amadu Mamadakov
Temdekov
Yuri Laguta
Brazhnikov
Yekaterina Vulichenko
Katya

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Nikolay Lebedev
Writers: Nikolay Lebedev, Aleksandr Borodyanskiy, Evgeniy Grigorev
Languages: Russian
Countries: Russia

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 62% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 24 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Nikolay Lebedev, shot by Yuriy Nevskiy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Aleksey Rybnikov. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Lidiya Milioti shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Igor Petrenko and Artyom Semakin and Aleksey Panin carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0326450 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Nikolay Lebedev directs. Yuriy Nevskiy behind the camera. Aleksey Rybnikov scores. Lidiya Milioti cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Russia. Dialogue in Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 62% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released 24 years ago.
4Directed by Nikolay Lebedev, shot by Yuriy Nevskiy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Aleksey Rybnikov. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Lidiya Milioti shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Igor Petrenko and Artyom Semakin and Aleksey Panin carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt0326450 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 44 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Yuriy Nevskiy
Original score: Aleksey Rybnikov
Editing: Lidiya Milioti
Production design: Lyudmila Kusakova
Makeup / hair: Marfa Berdnikova
Sound: Pavel Shuvalov
Stunt coordinator: Valeriy Derkach
Runtime: 97 min · 1h 37m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,300,000
Box office: $809,000
Return: 62% of budget
Original language: RU
IMDB: The Star (2002)

Also by

Nikolay Lebedev

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-12-21
★ 7/10
With the Nazis encroaching deeper into the USSR, the defenders mobilise a small unit to penetrate the enemy lines and try to find out just where they are storing their fuel and unloading their vast supply of tanks and other munitions. They've gathered enough intelligence to appreciate that if this squad can't get this information, then an enormous invasion will start for which they are ill-equipped to deal. The task is handed to the young "Travkin" (Igor Petrenko) and his half dozen soldiers and so they set off into the hornet's nest. On the face of it, this is just another wartime adventure where a tiny force is set to overcome overwhelming odds and do their own sort of "Dirty Dozen" style of thing. This is a bit more sophisticated than that, though, as it really does depict well just how young and inexperienced the young men, who were plunged into these truly hellish scenes, had to use what wits and guile they had to stay alive. Barely out of their teens, most of them, they must get used to the death around them but also to the acts of killing that are a new and fairly traumatic experience. It's these performances from the likes of Aleksey Panin and Artyom Semakin that really do ram home the brutality of their environment and at the random nature of warfare. Those that they encounter in frequent life-or-death situations are little older or more experienced, and just as terrified, as themselves. Sure, it's all a little propagandist but then weren't so many other movies made about WWII by the British and the Americans? This has much less of the gung-ho, ye-ha, to it - it does try to characterise the vulnerabilities of these young men, whilst also showing their strengths as individuals - and there are some light-hearted moments for us there - as well as their developing cohesiveness as a unit after an admittedly predictably rocky start. The production is all pretty standard but it has a certain freshness to it that carries it along and the ensemble deliver the spirit of petrified camaraderie quite effectively.

Production companies