AllMovie

The students and teachers of a small-town school are changed forever as the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon in this tragic drama. As the Russian people attempt to resist the fascist oppression of Stalin, a daughter commits suicide rather than betray her father by testifying against him. With political restrictions in the Soviet Union being gradually lifted in the 1980s, this was one of the first films to mention the previously taboo subject of the nighttime raids by the KGB, in which innocent people were dragged from their homes and jailed. Over 13 million people saw this feature in the USSR alone.