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The three young lads in this film, vacationing together at the seaside resort town of Odessa, are aware that war will soon change their futures irrevocably. They are all Communist Youth Party members, which means that ordinarily their prospects would be fairly bright. As they lark around in boats and on the shore, some of them have encounters which result in their having their first kiss with a girl, or a first shave. Two of the three die during the war. Whether because the director was Jewish (he emigrated to Israel in 1971) or because of its downbeat ending, this film was not released for two years after it was made and then was only allowed to have a very short run (in 1966). At that time it became something of a legend among Western reviewers as an especially fine film. It was restored and re-released in 1991.