| Belorussian Station | |
| Director: | Andrei Smirnov |
| Starring: | Yevgeny Leonov Anatoli Papanov Vsevolod Safonov Aleksey Glazyrin Nina Urgant |
| Music: | Alfred Schnittke (absent in the titres) |
| Cinematography: | Pavel Lebeshev |
| Studio: | Mosfilm |
| Runtime: | 101 minutes |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Language: | Russian |
Belorussian Station[1] (Russian: Белорусский вокзал|translit=Belorusski vokzal)[2] is a 1971 Soviet drama film directed by Andrei Smirnov.[3]
25 years after the end of Great Patriotic War four comrades-in-arms attend the funeral of their friend. He was the only one of them who stayed in the military and rose to the rank of colonel. The rest of them turned to civil professions: locksmith, journalist, accountant and director of the plant.
Being gathered together due to tragic circumstances, during one day they suddenly fall into a variety of situations – both comic and tragic ones. But in each case friends are united by friendship, generosity and willingness to act according to justice, no matter what ...
That difficult day friends complete with a visit to their friend, the former front-line nurse. She sings a lyrical song of the war years, and they cry from the flood of memories as they think back 25 years ago, May 1945, when all of them were alive, young and happy of their victory ...
The original script written in 1966 by Vadim Trunin was significantly different from the final one shot in the film. According to that scenario, young people at the restaurant began to mock the four front-line friends, and it came to a fight. The former paratroopers easily come out of it victorious, but the called police took the side of young people (one of them had influential parents). The police tried to arrest the four friends but instead the policemen became victims themselves.
Film director Andrei Smirnov was picking actors for this film for a very long time. Thus, the role of the director of the plant Kharlamov was auditioned for by Mikhail Ulyanov and even Eldar Ryazanov. Nikolay Rybnikov wanted to play the role of the simple locksmith, but Yevgeny Leonov was stronger in the screen test. The character of accountant Dubinsky was conceived as an analogue to Aramis, who would be played by the "classic" intellectual – Innokenty Smoktunovsky or Nikolai Grinko. As a result, Andrei Smirnov chose Anatoly Papanov, who surprisingly combined softness and sentimentality with brutality and power.
Direction of Mosfilm approved Inna Makarova on the role of the nurse Raisa, but Andrei Smirnov insisted on the candidacy of Nina Urgant.
The text of song for the movie, ("We need only one victory") was written by poet Bulat Okudzhava on request by director Andrei Smirnov. The music was also written by Okudzhava and adopted by Alfred Schnittke in the form of a march to be played at the military parades on Victory Day (9 May). During the filming of the finale Smirnov asked Nina Urgant not to cry when she sings. She managed to do it only after several attempts.