The Last Train

Black and white, 35 mm
Russia, 2003, 82 min
Section: East of the West

Synopsis

Russia, winter 1944. An older, military surgeon named Fischbach is driven, against the current of the retreating army, to a makeshift field hospital under evacuation. The front is collapsing. In the morning the doctors and remaining patients and soldiers begin to march... A lost Russian acting troupe takes refuge in a forest lodge. The Russians and Germans, now reduced to a surgeon and a military postmaster, find themselves in no-man’s-land. They are ravaged by bitter cold, hunger and the fear of uncertainty. A partisan unit hunts through the woods massacring all indiscriminately. Charred remains mark the location where the lodge once stood: there the surgeon finds an actress gurgling up a death rattle. He sits next to her but can’t understand what she’s saying and the only aid he can provide is his presence. This war tragedy delves into experiences of those from “the other side.” It is erected upon detailed, hyper-realistic accounts of people condemned to annihilation in a landscape hemmed in by the indifference of snow and frost.

About the director

Alexei German Jr. (b. 1976, Moscow), son of director Alexei German, first studied theatre science at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Theatrical Art (SPGATI), then direction at Moscow’s Film School (VGIK, 2001). His student movies earned him a degree of recognition: Banner (Znamya, 1998), Large Autumn Field (Bolshoi osennei pole, 1999) and Little Fools (Durachki, 2001). He entrusted the main roles of his feature debut The Last Train (2003) to musicologist Petr Merkuryev (Fischbach) and dramatologist Pavel Romanov (the postmaster).