Shepitko, Larisa, Bulgakova, Maya, Plotnikov, Boris	...	(Director)
Vasili Bykov, Yuri Klepikov	...	(Writer)
Boris Plotnikov	...	Sotnikov
Vladimir Gostyukhin	...	Rybak
Sergey Yakovlev	...	Village elder
Lyudmila Polyakova	...	Demchikha
Viktoriya Goldentul	...	Basya
Anatoliy Solonitsyn	...	Portnov, the Nazi interrogator
Mariya Vinogradova	...	Village elder's wife
Nikolai Sektimenko	...	Stas'
Sergei Kanishchev	...	Boy wearing Budenovka

Comments: DRUS 113.2

Summary: The career of Larisa Shepitko, an icon of sixties and seventies Soviet cinema, was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age thirty-nine, just as she was emerging on the international scene. The body of work she left behind, though small, is masterful, and her genius for visually evoking characters interior worlds is never more striking than in her two greatest works: Wings, an intimate yet exhilarating portrait of a female fighter pilot turned provincial headmistress, and The Ascent, a gripping, tragic World War II parable of betrayal and martyrdom. A true artist, who had deftly used the Soviet film industry to make statements both personal and universal, Shepitko remains one of the greatest unsung filmmakers of all time.