Heroic Stepsons (1994)

War veterans are walking along the street.

Young people along the road greet the veterans with flags and flowers.

A ceremonial column of armored personnel carriers with veterans is moving along the street.

Newsreel from 1945: Red Army tanks enter the liberated city, girls with flowers run to the tanks.

People give flowers to soldiers through the train windows.

A child with flowers runs up to the car and hands them to a veteran.

People along the street are waving their hands.

War veterans are walking along the street, they are given flowers.

Newsreel from 1945: a meeting of front-line soldiers, a crowd is rocking an officer.

Female war veterans are walking.

A meeting of veterans on the square near the Belorussky railway station.

Newsreel from 1945: a meeting at the station of those who returned from the front.

The march of Red Army columns, a meeting of liberators.

A veteran in a soldier's uniform walks across the square near the central entrance to Gorky Park.

Veterans meet on the territory of the park, holding signs.

A man makes a toast (synchronously) to those who did not live to see the Victory.

A family at the table, everyone stands up and drinks.

A meeting of veterans outdoors, by the fire.

Four elderly men in a room at the table, eating jacket potatoes, talking, drinking from aluminum mugs.

Photo by Dmitry Shchapov from the war era.

Leningrad, St.

Isaac's Square, Dmitry Shchapov is walking among the passers-by, a panorama of the sign on the wall of the house: "Citizens!

During artillery shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous." Photo from the time of the siege of Leningrad: a man with a piece of bread in his hand.

Newsreel from 1942-1943: in besieged Leningrad, a sleigh with a corpse is being pulled along the street.

Fascists slide down an icy hill on their feet, warm their hands by the fire.

A German is washing himself in the bathtub.

Leningrad residents get water from an ice hole in the Neva with ladles.

A street of the blockaded city: passers-by, broken cars, a man falls in the snow, a group of people on the sidewalk near a corpse.

Dmitry Shchapov, run over face.

View from above of the city of Tallinn.

Mansions in the suburbs of Tallinn.

Panorama of the sea bay.

Dmitry Shchapov walks along the shore.

Close-up: Shchapov's face.

Leningrad, view of the Neva, a hydrofoil sails along the river.

Drawings of blockaded Leningrad.

Reflection of buildings on the shore in the water of the Neva.

A group of veterans in Vorkuta bring flowers to the monument to the victims of Stalin's camps.

Close-up: Dmitry Shchapov's face.

View of Vorkuta from above.

Barbed wire at the site of the former prison camp.

Cemetery for those killed in the Vorkuta camp.

Dmitry Shchapov lays flowers on a grave cross.

Former prisoners reminisce (synchronously and off-screen) about the Vorkuta camp where they were imprisoned.

Piskarevskoye cemetery, eternal flame.

A girl lays flowers on a mass grave of those killed in 1942. A crowd of people with flowers.

Close-up: faces of young and old people.

Close-up: wire at Stalin's camp.

Hall of Fame in the memorial complex on Mamayev Kurgan.

Eternal flame.

Monument at the grave of Nikolai Zhuzhoma.

Bridge over the Dnieper.

A metro train travels across the bridge.

Newsreel from 1943: forcing the Dnieper, explosions on the water.

Sports boats on the water.

Newsreel 1943: soldiers cross the Dnieper on a ferry, explosions.

Children in a kayak near a wooden platform.

Newsreel 1943: soldiers jump from boats onto the shore.

Bombs rain down from an airplane.

A landing party of soldiers lands on the shore, explosions.

Girls walk along the shore.

Newsreel 1943: a battle on the bank of the Dnieper.

They carry a wounded man, explosions on the water.

Pedestrians cross the Dnieper on a bridge.

Nikolai Zhuzhoma among his relatives.

Nikolai Zhuzhoma walks down the street on Victory Day in a jacket with orders, medals and the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Bust on the grave of Nikolai Zhuzhoma.

Building of the school named after Nikolai Zhuzhoma.

School museum, bust of the hero, military awards on the table.

Children examine orders and medals.

On the stairs near the underpass, a man plays the accordion, collecting alms.

Tables with military clothing and symbols for sale on the street.

A panorama from the treetops to the Nikolai Zhuzhoma monument.

Trees with yellow leaves.

Leaves fall and float on the water.

Mikhail Devyatayev talking with two girls.

The family is working on their garden plot.

Devyatayev and his friends are cleaning fish and cooking fish soup over a fire.

Newsreel from 1944: an airplane in the air, an air battle, a shot down Soviet airplane falls.

German document from July 13, 1944. Mikhail Devyatayev at home preparing a film projector for work, showing an amateur film to his wife and grandson.

Map, zooming in on the name Peenemünde.

Newsreel from 1944: a view of the village from the air.

Launch of a V-2 rocket (unsuccessful), explosion.

Photo: designer Wernher von Braun carries a rocket on his shoulder.

A hangar with a rocket.

Launch of a V-2 rocket.

Hitler.

V-2 rockets go vertically into the sky.

London from the air, houses are burning.

Barbed wire fence in Peenemünde concentration camp, panorama of the wall with barred windows.

Concentration camp territory behind the barbed wire fence, guards with dogs.

Mikhail Devyatayev recalls (synchronously and off-screen) about his escape from Nazi captivity.

Newsreel from 1944: barbed wire fences of the concentration camp.

Breaking sea waves.

A pole with a sign in German.

Reconstruction: an airplane with a swastika, a passage inside.

A hand starts the engine.

The propeller turns.

The airplane begins its takeoff run, takes off over the sea.

View of the sea from a flying airplane.

An airplane in the sky.

Mikhail Devyatayev is sitting on the river bank.

A photograph of Devyatayev in an officer's uniform.

A panorama of churches.

Mikhail Devyatayev recalls (synchronously and off-screen) his post-war life.

A panorama of the river, a boat on the shore.

The monument depicts a man who escaped from fascist captivity.

Devyatayev in an officer's uniform in front of a mirror.

Awards on the uniform (large): orders, medals, the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sea pier.

Fishermen prepare a boat to go to sea.

They take the anchor from the shore and put it in the launch.

Fishermen launch the boat.

Abandoned ships lie on the shore.

Close up: hands turning the steering wheel.

Nikolai Bantysh on the ship, looking through binoculars.

Evening surf.

An abandoned ship on the shore.

Nikolai Bantysh with his grandson and friends go down to the quarries.

Pictures of life in a dungeon during World War II. Nikolai Bantysh reads a book to his grandson at home.

Bookshelves and his grandson’s drawings. N. Bantysh sorts through papers and newspaper clippings at the table.

Newsreel from 1941-1945: planes in the sky.

Air shelling of ground targets.

A train rushes, view from under the wheels.

A conditional map of Europe with fascist concentration camps marked.

On the table is a French newspaper with photographs of soldiers.

The memorial complex in memory of the heroes of the French Resistance on the Mont Valery hill.

Newsreel 1941-1945: soldiers of the French army.

Sculptures of the memorial complex.

The French town of Motauban, an outdoor cafe, visitors at tables.

Two trees in the street, between them on the ground is a memorial plaque to the fallen.

Rene Chambard is engaged in his farm.

Guests come to Rene Chambard, partisans of the Second World War. R. Chambard talks (synchronously) about his friends.

Photo: French soldiers from the Second World War.

Akhmedi Dzhabrailov is sitting by the window in the airplane cabin.

Agronomist Akhmedi Dzhabrailov walks across a clearing where cows are grazing.

A tractor is plowing a field. A. Dzhabrailov takes a lump of earth and kneads it with his fingers.

A pile of spent cartridges lies on his outstretched palms.

Women are crying.

Broken houses.

There is a battle going on, tanks are moving, soldiers are shooting from Kalashnikov assault rifles.

A panorama of the mountainous terrain of Azerbaijan.

Family feast.

A panorama of those sitting at the table.

The birthday of World War II hero Vladimir Pereladov. V. Pereladov's son makes a toast (synchronously) to his father, everyone clinks glasses and drinks.

Vladimir Pereladov meets with friends in the Italian town of Montefierino.

A woman, a former Italian partisan, talks (synchronously) about their joint fight with Soviet soldiers against the fascists.

A group of people in a mountainous area.

A panorama of the mountains in the snow.

Flower meadows.

Vladimir Pereladov and his Italian friends walking and singing songs.

A panorama of barbed wire.

Vladimir Pereladov writing at home at the table.

Newsreel 1941-1944: explosions, fires.

A column of Soviet prisoners of war marches.

Women are crying.

A fascist arrests a mother, drives her child away from her.

A column of refugees marches.

Soviet soldiers in captivity, incl. wounded, woman.

A column of Soviet captured soldiers is driven along the road.

Vladimir Pereladov talks (synchronously and off-screen) about returning to his homeland after the war.

A panorama of barbed wire, the remains of the camp territory.

Vladimir Pereladov walks along the embankment of the Moscow River near the Russian Government building.

Newsreel from 1993: barricades near the Government House (putsch).

People argue on the street about democracy (synchronously).

Armored personnel carriers drive along the street.

Newsreel from 1993: a column of armored personnel carriers on a Moscow street (the putsch).

A veteran with medals on his jacket.

Fighting in Moscow: a burnt-out trolleybus, the Russian government building is burning, people are walking across the square, carrying a wounded man in their arms.

Muscovites are watching what is happening near the Russian government building.

A stretcher with a wounded man is being brought to a car.

A woman is crying, lamenting about her son.

A soldier with a bandaged head.

A wounded man is having his head bandaged.

A wounded man is being carried in their arms.

An ambulance with a siren is driving down the street.

People are standing in the square near the burning Russian government building.

A pool of blood on the concrete slabs.

A funeral: a woman is crying near her son's coffin.

A military guard is standing near the coffins of the dead.

An officer's cap is on the lid of the coffin, the coffin with the body is being carried along the street.

Women are crying.

The burnt-out building of the Russian government.

Soldiers shoot into the sky, funeral salute.

Digging a grave, women crying.

Cemetery in the forest near Leningrad.

Crosses, flowers, photographs are tied to the trees.

On the tree is a sculptural profile of Jesus Christ.

A plaque with a photo portrait in memory of the person shot in 1938. Video effect: a crowd of people walking (negative image) Flowers, plaques, photographs at the site of the executions.

A candle stands in the grass, burning.

Close-up faces of the film's heroes: Dmitry Shchapov, Mikhail Devyatayev, Vladimir Pereladov.

One of the veterans holds his granddaughter's hand.

The eternal flame burns.

Clouds in the sky.

Flying over a field, combines are harvesting.

A flock of birds takes off into the sky.