True Friends () is a 1954 Soviet adventure comedy-drama film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.
The film tells the story of Alexander, Boris, and Vasily, three old friends who now barely see each other as they are busy with their professional lives. They embark on a long-planned voyage on a raft down the Yauza river, which turns into a series of comical accidents but also strengthens their friendship.
Plot Once, on the outskirts of Moscow, three young friends—Sashka, Borya, and Vaska—dreamed of adventure. While drifting on an old boat along the Yauza River, they fantasized about journeying down a great river and made a pact to reunite someday to fulfill their dream.
Thirty years later, Boris Petrovich Chizhov has become a renowned neurosurgery professor, Alexander Fyodorovich Lapin is a doctor of biological sciences and the director of an Experimental Institute of Animal Husbandry, and Vasily Vasilyevich Nestratov is an academician of architecture. Remembering their childhood promise, Lapin gathers his old friends, and together, they embark on a journey down a great river on a wooden raft.
During their journey, the loyal friends experience numerous adventures. For Lapin, the trip brings happiness as he reunites with a long-lost love. Chizhov showcases his surgical brilliance, performing a life-saving craniocerebral operation on an injured girl at a local hospital. As for Nestratov, the journey transforms his outlook on life, humbling his bureaucratic arrogance and bringing him closer to his roots.
Cast Vasili Merkuryev as Vasili Nestratov Boris Chirkov as Boris Chizhov Aleksandr Borisov as Alexander Lapin Alexey Gribov as Nekhoda Liliya Gritsenko as Natalya Sergeyevna Lyudmila Shagalova as Katya Alexey Pokrovsky as junior lieutenant Lyudmila Genika-Chirkova as Masha Mikhail Pugovkin as club entertainer Nikolay Smorchkov as Alexey Mazaev Yuri Sarantsev as Sergey
Production True Friends was made in the aftermath of the death of Joseph Stalin, when political control over Soviet cinema relaxed considerably. Josephin Woll wrote that "his death liberated director Kalatozov... True Friends was his first Thaw project".Josephine Woll. The Cranes Are Flying: The Film Companion . . Page 23. Its script was submitted for approval in 1952, but it was only authorized for filming after Stalin's death.Miera Liehm, Antonin J. Liehm . The Most Important Art: Soviet and Eastern European Film After 1945. . Page 71.
Reception With 30.9 million tickets sold, True Friends was the seventh highest-grossing Soviet film of 1954.True Friends on kinoexpert.ru. Together with Salt of the Earth, it was ex aequo awarded the Crystal Globe in the 1954 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.8th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. kviff.com.
The New York Times critic wrote that the film "makes for a surprisingly relaxed and sometimes infectious adventure".A.W. Vernye Druzya (1954) The Screen in Review; ' True Friends,' Russian Film, Is at Stanley. New York Times, 15 November 1954. Mira and Antonin Liehm commented that "it is almost incredible how fresh and new this film seemed, with its tame satirical theme". John Wakeman regarded it as a "subtle and often very funny satire".John Wakeman. World Film Directors: 1890-1945. . Page 514. David C. Gillespie opined that it is "an important, largely successful attempt... in addressing the legacy of Stalinism and its effects on the psyche and behaviour of people".David C. Gillespie. Russian Cinema. . Page 45. Josephine Woll concluded that True Friends "broke little new ground", reflecting the slow start of the Thaw in 1954, but that it satisfied the audience's "hunger" for films that, "banal plot and schematic characters notwithstanding, portrayed their life with some veracity".
References
External links
True Friends on kino-teatr.ru. True Friends the film with English subtitles