Last bread

Development of virgin lands . After finishing the flight and arriving at the motor depot, the driver Lyosha Dyomin learns that he offended his grandfather Yakushenko, the worst collective farm machine operator: his grandfather was going to adequately collect his “last bread” on his old combine, went through the whole engine in it, but the mechanic removed the gear from the combine and installed them on a new technique.

Alexei, Irina and Dmitry decide in the morning to get the gears for the combine harvester on the neighboring collective farm - they will spend the whole night traveling along country roads - three in the GAZ-63 cab ...

The search for gears is just an excuse for the guys to travel, sometimes even forgetting why they “wander” all night on endless virgin roads. They are busy with their quarrels, reconciliations, clarification of relationships.

- “The History of Belarusian Cinema: 1945-1967”, 1970 ^[2]

The theme of the film "Last Bread" was the image of the road. Roads night and morning. The road, which was to test the main characters for humanity. Obstacles along the way arise not only in the form of a river spill, but also in the guise of a soulless mechanic Fedor, overly picky servicemen from the traffic police. Moreover, they are all right in their own way. If the mechanic didn’t take the grandfather’s self-propelled guns to spare parts, young combine operators would not have entered the field. And the traffic police patrol has enough reasons for delivering Lesha to the department: he has no waybill, his driver’s documents are wet, the “flashlight” under his eye eloquently indicates a fight. But among episodic characters and figures opposing the “formally right”, there are people on whom the world is said to hold: the foreman Lopatkin, the storekeeper MTS Kuzmich, the captain of the police. The authors of the film are convincing in showing everyday life of the virgin lands.

- film expert E. L. Bondareva , "Cinema of Soviet Belarus", 1975 ^[1]

Starring:

• Yuri Solovyov - Alexey Demin
• Tatyana Gavrilova - Irina
• Alexey Loktev - Dimka

In the episodes:

• Georgy Zhzhenov - police major, department head
• Ivan Nazarov - grandfather Yakushenko, an old driver
• Gennady Yukhtin - Lopatkin
• Vsevolod Kuznetsov - Fedor, mechanic
• Arkady Trusov - Kuzmich, mechanic, party program
• Pavel Kashlakov - Misha, driver
• Ginayat Kasymkhanov - traffic police inspector
• Roman Filippov - a thief
• Oleg Khromenkov - Fischenko, a driver from the team of Misha
• Oleg Belov - driver from the team of Misha
• Maria Belinskaya - doctor
• Nikolay Volkov - a driver from the team of Misha
• Rostislav Shmyryov - duty policeman

The film is based on the story of the same name by Vadim Trunin . The author himself wrote the script for the film. The story was published in the journal " Youth " No. 8 for 1961, and in 1965 entered the anthology "Youth. Favorites. 1955-1965 ". This is one of the first stories of a young writer, written under the fresh impressions of a trip to the virgin lands . ^[2]

The entire film was shot at night - on black and white film, but the operators coped with the task according to the artistic director of the youth creative association of the Belarusfilm film studio S. Skvortsov : ^[3]

These young cameramen - despite the disgusting characters - are real artists. We argue a lot with them. All the action of the film is limited to one night. Shooting an entire movie in incredibly difficult mode. There are fears that the picture will be too dark. Operators will take this into account. But the principle of camera movement is on the right track.

For the acting grandfather Yakushenko, who wants to collect his “last bread”, actor Ivan Nazarov, this was the last role in life.

As indicated in the 2011 edition “Screen and Cultural Heritage of Belarus”, the film shortly after its release was “ put on the shelf ” - sharply criticized as “ Soviet Belarus ” and “ Zvyazda ” as party publications for “formalism and the absence of an optimistic screen hero of ours time ", and the movie magazines" Soviet Screen "and" The Art of Cinema ". ^[four]

At the same time, the party journal “ Communist of Belarus ” noted the failure with the film with regret, noting the excellent work of the film’s operators:

Bitter for all of us, for example, was the experience of working on the movie "Last Bread". The film is based on a good idea - about attention to a person, about the responsibility of everyone for the fate of a comrade. But revealed on small events, on primitive characters, this idea did not captivate the filmmakers or the audience. Despite all the attempts of the director V. Stepanov to breathe life into a script devoid of soul and action, despite the excellent work of cameraman A. Zabolotsky, the picture did not work out.

- magazine " Communist of Belarus ", 1966

In the same vein, the magazine “ Cinema Art ”, noting that the film “is a failure in the work of young people on a modern topic. B. Stepanov was not able to translate interesting literature into the language of the screen ”, while he did not reduce the significance of the first such film for a film studio and recognized the efforts of the authors of the film:

The story “The Last Bread” attracted the attention of both cameraman Zabolotsky and director Stepanov with a free, uninhibited form of plot, the ability to show the unusual in the ordinary, to create an organic environment for the manifestation of romantic heroism. Alas, the film itself was deprived of the poetry of simple life. It could not be sustained in a single style. His main idea was blurred. But again - an interesting camera work by A. Zabolotsky and Yu. Marukhin. And, despite all the shortcomings, for combining this film about modernity (the first!) Undoubtedly was something new, unusual. He was born very hard, but the guys made a picture from a big, pure heart.

- Magazine "The Art of Cinema", 1967 ^[3]

The main claim to the film was reduced to the undisclosed working life of the heroes in the virgin lands, but the advantages of the film were emphasized by criticism:

In the script of The Last Bread, the playwright did not directly show the heroes' labor activity, it remained as if off screen. The author was interested in ethical problems, problems of the spiritual connection of generations, emotional sensitivity, warmth, kindness and nobility of people.

With all these shortcomings, the film “Last Bread” can be described as an interesting creative application by young artists. The picture has a lot of interesting observations. The initial episodes of the film, which make up its exposition, convince us of this. They are true and accurate in everyday details and reflect real, everyday signs of the times.

- “The History of Belarusian Cinema: 1945-1967”, 1970 ^[2]

In the filmography of the director, his debut film was considered his failure, but was loved by the director, and was recognized by film critics as having value:

She was preceded by a film of difficult fate. We are talking about the painting "The Last Bread" (1963). This film did not cause the approving responses of pi from the audience, nor from most critics. But B. Stepanov’s search in “The Last Bread” turned out to be important in the development of the topic of modernity by the Belarusian film studio. A. Zabolotsky and Yu. Marukhin made the film “The Last Bread” inventively, in difficult conditions of regime filming. They demonstrated a bold work with the light, found the rhythm of the camera, successfully conveying the state in which the characters are. The credibility of the story was organically combined in the film with romantic elation. However, the image of life without a deep understanding of it could not give a significant artistic result.

B. Stepanov himself admits: the film was not successful in everything. But still, “The Last Bread” is dear to him as the first touch on the large and complex topic of showing the moral criteria of a contemporary’s life. Undoubtedly, the experience of staging The Last Bread is instructive in many respects for B. Stepanov. And not only professionally.

- film expert E. L. Bondareva , "Cinema of Soviet Belarus", 1975 ^[1]