Fortress. Shield and sword

1609 year ^[1] . Not far from Smolensk, the Polish army camps, led by King Sigismund III and the Hetman Stanislav Zholkevsky . The king expects to take the city in a few days and then move on to Moscow . At night, the camp of the Poles is discovered by two boys - an orphan Sashka and a little brother Fedor, who help baker Filimon in his work.

That day, Sashka was flogged by Filimon for a bomb exploding in a bakery, molded by a boy from dough. After flogging, he tells Fyodor about the “Tsar of the Fire Shield”, whom he allegedly saw in Moscow and the appearance of which portends trouble, and persuades a friend to go to the cemetery with him at night, where, after arranging a dance for him, he falls into a sinking grave. Having got out of it, the frightened Sashka with Fedor runs away from the cemetery. Thus they jump into the Polish camp.

Sashka decides to throw a test bomb into the camp, supposedly in order to detain the Poles, and Fedor sends to the city to inform that a Pole has risen under the city. Sashka throws a bomb at the Poles who were sitting around the fire, but only set the trousers on one of those who were sitting. They notice Sasha, and he runs from all legs to the fortress. Entering the fortress, Sashka sees that the city is preparing for defense. The boy meets Governor Mikhail Borisovich Shein .

The next morning, the voivode gathers the inhabitants of the city in a row in order to determine the combat orientation of the inhabitants. During the determination, Sashka put on a mustache so that he too would be taken to defend the fortress. But Mikhail Borisovich passed him, not giving him the opportunity to defend the fortress, but during the detour it turns out that Sasha’s friend, Fedor, is literate: he knows the alphabet, knows how to read from warehouses and writes, and they take the clerk to the clerk Alexei Ivanovich.

Sashka again decides to make bombs from the test, suggesting that if he does them, they will take him to military service. At night, Sashka with the help of Fyodor climbs onto the roof of the house of the baker Filimon and penetrates through the pipe into the kitchen, where on the table, in a wooden basin, the dough lay. Filimon wakes up from the sounds coming from the kitchen, takes a lamp and a birch log from the stove, screams into the kitchen and sees Sasha, who looks like the devil because of soot, which he smeared, jumping into the chimney. Filimon steps back in horror, and Sashka jumps out of the bakery through the window, having time to collect the dough, leaving the baptized baker alone.

After the incident, Sashka and Fedor run to the well, where they part. Sasha secretly enters the Abraham gate and picks up a bag of gunpowder from a barrel. Suddenly he notices a rope in a loophole. Looking out the window, Sasha notices a masked scout climbing up a rope. Sasha pulls on the rope so that the spy falls, but he cuts the rope with a knife. The guard finds Sasha and tries to catch him for the theft of gunpowder, but the boy twists out and scolding the guard for overslept the scout, runs to the top of the tower. Having reached the top, Sasha discovers a silver pectoral cross on a rope.

In the morning, the boy runs to Fedor and shows him the cross. The baby takes the cross, saying that "one good man" asked him to find this thing. At this time, the Poles begin shelling the city. One of the enemy shells enters the chimney, and it falls right on Sasha, but the boy manages to dodge, jumping from the window through which he spoke with Fedor. After a short time, Sashka again approaches the window, but Fedor is no longer in the room. Behind the closet in the room there was a spy who killed Fedor during the fall of the chimney. A scout takes a cross from him.

Sasha runs under a hail of shells to the fortress wall, where she helps Shein with a cannon. At this time, the Poles began to creep up to the Abraham gate under an iron ram to blow them up. Mikhail Borisovich decides to take a trick: throw a bag of gunpowder in front of the gate and give the mountain a Polish signal, which the enemy cavalry had to go to shoot her with cannons when she approaches the gate.

The cavalry is tricked and advances, but the whole crashes into a closed gate. At this time, Shein gives the order “fire”, but the guns do not fire: the powder is diluted with sand and the Poles safely return to the camp. The voivode calls the sentry on duty at night. They bring a sentry who, having seen Sasha, immediately says that the boy stole gunpowder at night. Shein orders to lock Sasha in the old bath. At night, a Polish spy enters the bathhouse to kill Sasha. But he leaves without finding a boy: Sasha was hidden in time by the old man who lived in the bathhouse, whom the boy initially mistook for a banner .

After the assault, the king reports Zholkevsky for the failed assault on the Abraham Gate. Hetman reports that in a week from Riga will arrive weapons capable of breaking through the walls of Smolensk. In turn, the cardinal, the uncle of the Polish king, gives advice to Sigismund to leave the Russians without cores and says that there are many underground passages near Smolensk. In the catacombs, the cardinal meets with a spy, asks him to disable the foundry and gives him a devil mask to strengthen the rumor of evil spirits in the city and thus provoke panic and unrest. The spy enters the territory of the foundry, opens the water and rinses off all the refractory clay, frightening one of the workers with a devil's mask.

In the bathhouse, meanwhile, the grandfather shows Sasha a move into the dungeon and asks the boy to put him special clay for the stove from there. Sashka fulfills the task of his grandfather and, not finding his grandfather in place, goes back to the catacombs. The soldier tells Mikhail Borisovich that eight bags of gunpowder were diluted with sand, each of which weighs three pounds, that is, Sashka could not do this. Shein decides to visit Sasha, but discovers in the middle of the old bath the molding clay necessary for the production of cores, and orders to take the clay to the foundry.

Sashka gets out of the catacombs through the old well. Philemon begins to run after him, and Sashka goes back to the dungeon through the well. The well is stoned. The boy goes back to his grandfather in the old bathhouse. Grandfather puts him to sleep.

The Polish army, thinking that there are already no cores in Smolensk, begins a general assault. The voivode, together with the army, repels the enemy.

At night, the grandfather wakes Sasha and he goes to the dungeon. In the catacombs, the boy notices a burning wick and finds barrels of gunpowder on it. Unable to put out the wick, he pushes the barrel to the entrance to the dungeon, where it explodes, thereby saving one of the towers of the fortress.

Sasha comes to the clerk Alexei Ivanovich to find Fedor. Seeing a silver pectoral cross on the neck of the clerk, he realizes that he is facing the same spy. To the boy’s question, where is Fyodor, the clerk declares that he “will not and will not be” and intends to kill Sasha too. The boy manages to escape, taking with him a devil's mask that fell out of the clerk’s bag to present evidence to Shein. Governor orders to capture the traitor, but the clerk has time to leave the city. Sasha is mourning Fedor.

A giant cannon arrives in the enemy camp from Riga, with the help of which the Poles make a breach in the fortress wall with one shot. A little later, ambassadors from Moscow arrive in Smolensk and announce the abdication of Tsar Vasily Shuisky from the throne and an order replacing the supreme power of the Semiboyarschyna to surrender the city to Sigismund. Shein appeals to the people, saying that only the Smolensk king of Poland will not be satisfied. The people answer that they are ready to go for the governor anywhere.

The governor did not surrender the city. The Polish cannon destroys the walls, besides the Poles are constantly changing its position. Without a scout signal, getting into a gun and destroying it is almost impossible. The governor sends Nikolai to give a signal to show the position of the gun, and Sasha gives the task to take the letter to Moscow. Sasha returns to his grandfather to say goodbye. He gives him a bundle on the road. When Sashka runs out into the street, rain begins and the boy slips and drops his letter. Sasha sees that in front of him is pure harata. He finds in the bushes of a wounded Nicholas with an unlit torch. Nikolai shows where the gun was dragged, and gives the torch so that Sasha gives a signal. The torch is damp from the rain, and it is impossible to light it. Sasha unfolds the bundle given to him by his grandfather and discovers a glass flashlight with a candle inside. The boy lights a flashlight, thereby giving out the location of the gun. With a aimed shot from the cannons, the Russians destroy the “Miracle Cannon”. Sasha, who was chased by a traitor-clerk, loses consciousness. A vision appears before him: the clerk turns into the Black Horseman. From the flashlight in the sky, the “King of the Shield of Fire” emerges on a horse and beats the Black Horseman with a gold spear. "The King of Fire Shield" picks up Sasha’s palm and removes his helmet. The boy sees the very grandfather from the old bath who helped him. Sashka finds himself in the afterlife , which appears before him in the form of the same old bathhouse, where the orphan meets Fedor.

In the final, it is reported that the rebellious fortress fell two years later. Eight years later, in 1619, the governor Shein returned from Polish captivity to his homeland. At the Russian-Polish border post, where the exchange of prisoners of war takes place, the governor recognizes Sasha, who has grown up, in one of the archers who met him.

• Director - Fedor Dmitriev
• Screenwriter - Alexander Boyarsky
• Set Designer: Oleg Markelov
• Producers - Sergey Selyanov , Alexander Boyarsky
• Leading animators - Maria Aluferova, Ekaterina Kolmakova, Evgeny Grishina, Vera Shiganova, Daria Skripka
• Composer - Mikhail Chertishchev
• Lyrics - Alexander Boyarsky, Semyon Treskunov , Sergey Pokhodaev
• Artists of songs - Alisa Kozhikina , Semyon Treskunov

The cartoon received mostly positive reviews and, according to users, Afisha.ru has 4.5 stars out of five ^[2] . Elena Didenko from sakhalin.info praised the cartoon, calling it a bright and patriotic work and at the same time without unnecessary cruelty, playful and serious at the same time. That will undoubtedly arouse interest among young viewers, especially because the main character himself is a young child who is easy to empathize with. Elena also praised the cartoon for its historicity and a detailed demonstration of the work of artillery, the military uniform of Russian and Polish troops. Despite this, the critic reproached the work for the excessive “cartoony” appearance of the characters, which is slightly contrary to the high-quality animation and “serious plot” ^[3] .

Film critic Boris Ivanov from the film.ru website praised the cartoon for its historical approach, since the battle of Smolensk did not bring Russia victory and therefore, as a rule, little is remembered about this event, but it significantly influenced the further course of the war in favor of the Russians. On the other hand, according to the critic, the plot turned out to be crumpled and filled with historical inconsistencies. Boris was dissatisfied with the appearance of some higher forces - “gods from the car”, noting that the main characters still had to influence the course of events. According to the critic, many of the shortcomings in the plot are due to the fact that the picture itself is “unique” and has no analogues, on the other hand it will be a useful experience for those who want to create similar pictures in the future and can avoid the shortcomings from “Fortress”. Boris also noted that the Poles in the cartoon are shown in a dignified manner, without a "cliche about insidious villains." In general, the critic called the cartoon “lumpy pancake”, but also fascinating, dramatic, beautifully drawn and sincere ^[4] .

Some sayings cited by Fedor are based on the statements of Empress Catherine II , who ascended the throne a century and a half after the events of the film ^[5] .

Valuation in Belarus

The review from the Belarus website “Belarusians and the Market” mentions the dissatisfaction of Belarusian nationalists with the fact that the cartoon does not contain the troops of the Principality of Lithuania , which, along with Polish troops, participated in the siege of Smolensk ^[6] .

Valuation in Poland

The Poles basically reacted negatively to the plot of the cartoon, calling it anti-Polish and were unhappy with the "silly" image of King Sigismund. So on the Polish site Onet, the cartoon was called "anti-Polish", where Polish Sigismund III is the main villain, and the Russian Tsar is a positive character. The critic is convinced that the cartoon was commissioned by the Russian government as part of the information war against the West and Poland ^[7] . Andrzej Poczobut from " Gazety Wyborczej " called the cartoon "about evil Poles" stimulating emotions. He was also puzzled by the fact that the cartoon caused an ambiguous reaction in Belarus ^[8] . Camille Sikora also criticized the cartoon, where “even the children are at war with the Poles,” and I am sure that the film will only strengthen the bad image of Poland in Russia ^[9] .

UK Valuation

Olga Sherwood from the BBC website wrote a devastating article about the cartoon, calling it an example of the "Orthodox autocracy" imposed on the masses and another Kremlin propaganda aimed at a young audience and a vivid example of "inglorious domestic cinema" ^[10] .

• The Black Horseman (music by M. Chertishchev and K. Chentsov, lyrics by A. Boyarsky , performed by A. Kozhikina )

• “Freedom” (music by S. Treskunov , S. Pokhodaev and M. Chertishchev, lyrics by S. Treskunov and S. Pokhodaev, performed by S. Treskunov and A. Kozhikina)

• 2016 - XX All-Russian Festival of Visual Arts at the Orlyonok Children's Center: The best full-length animation work - “Fortress. With a shield and a sword, ”directed by Fedor Dmitriev. ^[eleven]
• 2016 - XIII International Charity Film Festival "Radiant Angel" in the category "Animated Cinema": 3rd prize - "Fortress. With a shield and a sword, ”directed by Fedor Dmitriev. ^[12]

• Siege of Smolensk (1609-1611)

• "Fortress: Shield and sword" on " Animator.ru "
• Fortress. Shield and sword - tlum.ru
• “Fortress: Shield and Sword” on the Internet Movie Database
• "Fortress: Shield and Sword" on the STV website
• "Fortress: Shield and sword" on the site "Mill"
• Vuyachich, F. That's the end of the tale // KG-Portal. - 2015. - October 29. (Retrieved November 22, 2015)
• Grishin, B. For the Fiery King and the Fatherland // Poster@mail.ru. - 2015. - October 27. (Retrieved November 22, 2015)
• Kholmogorov, E.S. Test for fortress // Culture . - 2015. - No. 37 (7978). - S. 8. (Retrieved November 22, 2015)