European convoy

Two brothers - immigrants from the USSR , trying to improve their financial situation, rob a cafe in Germany . At the exit, they are detained by a police outfit. But the unknown, armed with a pistol, beats off the unsuccessful robbers from the police and hides with them.

A new acquaintance, also a native of the USSR, suggests not trifling and robbing a bank. During the robbery, the bank is blocked by the police. The robbers take a bank employee hostage, under the threat of whose life they disarm the police and leave. The police rushes in pursuit. Robbers decide to break into the territory of the former USSR in order to get lost in its open spaces.

On the territory of Poland, an employee of the Ukrainian special forces and a female negotiating officer of the Polish police are connected to the pursuit. During the persecution, it turns out that the German hostage is the daughter of an influential businessman. A businessman offers a ransom for his daughter. The situation escalates - a ransom was received, a woman negotiator was taken hostage, one of the robbers was killed. But the chase continues ...

• Boris Birman - Victor
• Julia Dellos - Wanda (voiced by Tatyana Antonova)
• Sergey Ivanov (II) - Andrey
• Igor Petrusenko - Arthur (voiced by Oleg Lepenets)
• Victor Saraikin - Vitaliy
• Leonid Kuravlev - General
• Alexey Vertinsky - Schulz
• Oleg Maslennikov - Gunther
• Olesya Vlasova - Teresa
• Valery Zaitsev
• Vladimir Necheporenko
• Valentin Shestopalov - Polish Colonel
• Alexander Gannochenko - President of Ukraine
• Alexander Danilevich - adjutant Sasha
• Dmitry Surzhikov - operator
• Olga Radchuk - reads voiceover from German and Polish

• Stage Director: Andrey Benkendorf
• Script writer: Vladimir Zhovnoruk , Nikolay Rybalka
• Director of photography: Anatoly Sakhno
• Set Designer: Eugene Streletsky
• Composer and sound engineer: Egor Herodov
• Make-up artist: Sergey Dubina
• Costume Designer: Natalya Matsedina
• Second Director: Galina Ostrovaya
• The second operator: Vladimir Sovyak-Krukovsky
• Visual effects: Roman Kladko
• Sound engineer: Vitaly Beloblovsky
• Staging: Sergey Golovkin , Vladimir Strokan
• Line producer: Valery Potapenko
• Executive Producers: Ed Yevtushenko , Georgy Bibik , Artem Dollezhal
• Producers: Alexey Tereshchenko , Konstantin Shamin
• General Producer: Vlad Ryashin

• The story of a unique crime - the robbery of a bank branch in a small town of Lower Saxony by three immigrants from the USSR, the capture of two hostages, the pursuit of three countries and the release of a hostage near Rovno ^[1] - was told by Valery Potapenko to Konstantin Shamin in the early spring of 2003 . Based on the real story, a script was written that interested director Andrei Benkendorf .
• The film crew was advised by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Oleksandr Gapon , direct head of the organization for the detention of criminals and the release of hostages.
• The role of the General, whose name was Andrei Alexandrovich in the film (it’s a joke of the scriptwriters to name the hero by the name of the director), was played by Leonid Kuravlev . It is noteworthy that the real police general was called the other way around - Alexander Andreevich Gapon. In addition, one of the general’s assistants bears the name Terentyev - this is the name of the executive producer of the film.
• The following facts indicate the scale of the filming. Filming took place on a real nature in Luneburg , the chase was shot in the city of Uelzen, in pursuit, real German police cars were shot in spite of the formal ban. The film crew worked for three days on the territory of a sensitive facility - the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, occupying the office of the second person in the ministry - the Secretary of State. For one day at the disposal of the crew was the border crossing "Dorohusk-Yagodin."

The film contains the song of Vladimir Vysotsky “Darkness” performed by Nikita Dzhigurda .

• European Convoy on the Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema website