The Cold Summer of 1953


The Cold Summer of 1953 is a 1988 Soviet crime film directed by Aleksandr Proshkin. It was the last film of the Soviet actor Anatoly Papanov.

Plot

Summer 1953. After Stalin's death, one of his closest colleagues, First Deputy Premier and head of the MVD Lavrenty Beria, announces an amnesty for non-political prisoners and for political prisoners sentenced to not more than 5 years. As a result, many dangerous criminals are freed from labor camps. They organise gangs and begin to rob, kill and rape.
In a small village in the north of Russia live two exiles: former military intelligence captain Sergei Basargin and former engineer Nikolai Pavlovich Starobogatov. Both have been unjustly exiled by Stalin's regime.
The village is attacked by a gang of criminals. The bandits kill the only policeman and take the entire population hostage. To save them, the former military officer and the former engineer take up arms.

Cast