Fate of a Man - Misplaced Pages

1959 Soviet Union film

Fate of a Man

Directed by	Sergei Bondarchuk
Written by	Yuri Lukin Fyodor Shakhmagonov
Based on	Fate of a Man by Mikhail Sholokhov
Produced by	Roskino
Starring	Sergei Bondarchuk Pavel Boriskin Zinaida Kiriyenko Pavel Volkov
Music by	Veniamin Basner
Production company	Mosfilm
Release date	August 1959 (1959-08)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Fate of a Man (Russian: Судьба человека, translit. Sudjba cheloveka), also released as A Man's Destiny and Destiny of a Man is a 1959 Soviet World War II film adaptation of the short story by Mikhail Sholokhov, and also the directorial debut of Sergei Bondarchuk. In the year of its release it won the Grand Prize at the 1st Moscow International Film Festival.

Plot

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, driver Andrei Sokolov has to part with his family. In May 1942 he is taken prisoner by the Germans. Sokolov endures the hell of a Nazi concentration camp, but thanks to his courage he avoids execution and finally escapes from captivity behind the front line to his own. On a short front-line vacation to his small homeland Voronezh, he learns that his wife and both daughters have died during the bombing of Voronezh by German aircraft. Of those close to him, only his son remained, who became an officer. On the last day of the war, May 9, Andrei receives news that his son has died.

After the war, the lonely Sokolov works as a truck driver away from his native places - in Uryupinsk (Stalingrad Oblast). There he meets a little boy Vanya, who was left an orphan: the boy's mother died during the bombing, and his father went missing during the war. Sokolov decides to tell the boy that he is his father, and by doing so he gives himself and the boy hope for a new happy family life.

Cast

Sergei Bondarchuk as Andrei Sokolov
Pavel Boriskin as Vanya
Zinaida Kiriyenko as Irina, Sokolov's wife
Pavel Volkov as Ivan Timofeyevich, Sokolov's neighbor
Yuri Averin as Müller
Kirill Alekseyev as German Major
Pavel Vinnik as Soviet Colonel
Lev Borisov as platoon
Georgy Millyar as drunk German soldier
Yevgeny Morgunov as fat German soldier (uncredited)

References

Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
"1st Moscow International Film Festival (1959)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-11-03.

External links

Destiny of a Man at IMDb

v t e Films by Sergei Bondarchuk
Fate of a Man (1959) War and Peace (1965–1967) Waterloo (1970) They Fought for Their Country (1975) The Steppe (1977) Red Bells (1982) Red Bells II (1982) Boris Godunov (1986)

v t e Moscow International Film Festival Main Award
1959–1967 Grand Prix	Fate of a Man (1959) The Naked Island – Clear Skies (1961) 8+1⁄2 (1963) War and Peace – Twenty Hours (1965) The Journalist – Father (1967)
1969–1987 Golden Prize	Lucía – Serafino – We'll Live Till Monday (1969) Confessions of a Police Captain – Live Today, Die Tomorrow! – The White Bird Marked with Black (1971) That Sweet Word: Liberty! – Affection (1973) The Promised Land – Dersu Uzala – We All Loved Each Other So Much (1975) The Fifth Seal – El puente – Mimino (1977) Christ Stopped at Eboli – Siete días de enero – Camera Buff (1979) O Homem que Virou Suco – The Abandoned Field: Free Fire Zone – Teheran 43 (1981) Amok – Alsino and the Condor – Vassa (1983) Come and See – A Soldier's Story – The Descent of the Nine (1985) Intervista (1987)
1989–present Golden St. George	The Icicle Thief (1989) Spotted Dog Running at the Edge of the Sea (1991) Me Ivan, You Abraham (1993) (No award in 1995) Marvin's Room (1997) Will to Live (1999) Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease (2000) The Believer (2001) Resurrection (2002) The End of a Mystery (2003) Our Own (2004) Dreaming of Space (2005) About Sara (2006) Travelling with Pets (2007) As Simple as That (2008) Pete on the Way to Heaven (2009) Hermano (2010) Las olas (2011) Junkhearts (2012) Particle (2013) My Man (2014) Losers (2015) Daughter (2016) Yuan Shang (2017) The Lord Eagle (2018) The Secret of A Leader (2019) A Siege Diary (2020) Dogpoopgirl (2021) No Prior Appointment (2022) Tres Hermanos (2023) Shame (2024)

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