| The Cold Summer of 1953 | |
| Director: | Aleksandr Proshkin |
| Starring: | Valeriy Priyomykhov Anatoli Papanov Viktor Stepanov Nina Usatova |
| Music: | Vladimir Martynov |
| Cinematography: | Boris Brozhovsky |
| Studio: | Mosfilm |
| Runtime: | 97 minutes |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Language: | Russian |
The Cold Summer of 1953 (Russian: Холодное лето пятьдесят третьего…|Kholodnoe leto pyat'desyat tret'ego) is a 1988 Soviet crime thriller Film directed by Aleksandr Proshkin. The film is set during the tumultuous period directly after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. It was the last film starring the Soviet actor Anatoly Papanov.
As a result of Beria's Amnesty of 1953, a large numbers of criminals were released and pardoned. Upon release they quickly began to form gangs, committing robberies, murders, and rapes nationwide: Many places in the USSR were subject to rampant criminality and looting at the hands of now fully-pardoned inmates.
The main protagonists are Sergei Basargin (nicknamed "Luzga"), who is a former Military Intelligence Captain, veteran and POW. He is friends with a fellow political exile called Nikolai Pavlovich Starobogatov ("Kopalych"), former Chief Engineer. Both of these men were forced into exile after being falsely accused of crimes against the state by Stalin's regime.
At dusk, the village is infiltrated by a gang of six bandits led by the experienced crook Baron. They take Ivan Zotov hostage in his own home, ransacking it and arming themselves with his guns. In order to survive, Zotov has to turn on the village and side with the bandits, by hatching an escape plan for them, and being forced to help them stay unnoticed until they can lure out and kill the village's policeman Mankov in order to get their hands on his submachine gun, which would give them total control over the villagers.
After the first shots are fired and Mankov is dead, the bandits plan springs into action, and they quickly force the villagers into a barn, locking the door and shutting in everyone except for Lydia, who they force to cook them a meal, Luzga and Kopalych, who they make dig a grave for Mankov, Fadeich, who they've decided to kill, and Zotov, who they keep as "one of them".
Before being captured, the deaf-mute cook Lydia locks her attractive young daughter Shura into another barn in order to hide her from the bandits, one of whom, driven by lust, tries everything in his power to get the lock off of the barn door in order to get to her. No matter how hard he tries, he doesn't succeed, and furiously storms back to the rest of his gang, taking out his frustrations on Lydia. During a quiet moment after this, Lydia goes back to the barn where her daughter is, unlocking the door and telling her to escape into the nearby woods. Being spotted by the same lusty bandit, she is chased into the woods and forced onto the ground by the man. Luzga, having observed all of this, silently approaches the bandit from behind and stabs him with a shiv, killing him.
Luzga comforts Shura, still in shock from being assaulted, before leaving her in order to scout for bandits, now being armed with the bandits pistol. After a short search, he sees the oldest bandit, Mikhalych having a conversation with Kopalych about the recent downfall of Beria. Mikhalych notices Luzga approaching over Kopalych's shoulder and fires a shot at him. Only lightly wounded, Luzga falls to the ground, feigning death, before suddenly shooting and killing Mikhalych. Not long after reuniting with Kopalych, they pick off another lone bandit and move towards the village, guns at the ready.
The three remaining bandits, realizing half of their men have been killed, begin a group search on the two rebels. Luzga orders Kopalych to create a distraction for the bandits, and implores him to take proper cover during this, but Kopalych stands upright to draw more of the bandits attention, and in his sacrifice, is shot dead. Thanks to Kopalych's act of selflessness, Luzga successfully guns down all three of the bandits.
In the evening, as the villagers are deciding amongst themselves what to do with the bodies, who to bury and where, they notice one body missing. In a tragic twist of fate, the leader of the bandits survived being shot, playing dead for hours on end only to shoot and kill Shura. After hearing the girls mother weeping, Luzga goes to investigate what's happened, only to be shot at by the still-living bandit. After dodging his remaining shots, Luzga chases after the man, threatening to beat him to death with his bare hands. The chase ends with them both having waded out into stomach-deep water, Luzga eventually forcing the man under water.
In a scene two years after the events of the movie, Luzga is seen walking the streets of Moscow. He visits the relatives of Kopalych, who were asked by him to denounce him after his arrest, and informs them of his death. Luzga also reveals to them that Kopalych was never guilty of his crimes, and that he'd asked them to disown him so that they themselves wouldn't be persecuted by Stalin's regime for being associated with him.