Nikita Mikhalkov

BURNT BY THE SUN 2 (EXODUS / THE CITADEL)

SOLEIL TROMPEUR 2 (THE INTRODUCTION / THE CITADEL)

Screening room

Status: Completed

Director(s): Nikita Mikhalkov

Main cast: Nikita Mikhalkov, Oleg Menshikov, Nadezhda Mikhalkova

Short synopsis : An epic, searing drama of individual lives caught up in the violent, unstoppable wheels of conflict in the long-awaited sequel to Nikita Mikhalkov's Academy® Award-winning Burnt by the Sun...

Long synopsis : EXODUS - BURNT BY THE SUN 2 1941. Five years have passed since the lives and destinies of General Kotov, his wife Maroussia, their daughter Nadia - as well as those of Mitia and the Sverbitski family - were irrevocably changed. Five years of incarceration for General Kotov, the former Revolutionary hero betrayed by Stalin, who escapes certain death in the Gulag and finds himself fighting at the front as a private. Five years of terror for Maroussia, without the husband she believes dead and the daughter who has rejected her. For Nadia, five years of hiding - always proud of the valiant father who she refuses to disown and whom she believes is alive, despite all reports to the contrary. Five years of survival for Mitia who, having survived a suicide attempt, reluctantly continues to execute the orders of a regime he holds in contempt. And five years for Comrade Stalin who, finding himself attacked by former ally Adolf Hitler, is forced to recall the elite he had exiled to the camps and to mobilize the Russian population - by any means necessary - to rise against the threat of fascism. SYNOPSIS BBTS2 A searing, epic tragedy of lives caught up in the violent, unstoppable wheels of an earth-shattering war - the long-awaited sequel to Nikita Mikhalkov's Academy Award-winning ''Burnt by the Sun''. Former Revolutionary hero General Kotov escapes death in the gulag and signs up as a private. His battalion joins the troops defending Moscow with a courage verging on madness - a handful of badly-armed soldiers confront the appalling force of a German panzer division attack, and are decimated. A wounded hero, Kotov is given the opportunity to leave the battalion, but refuses. Believing his wife Marussia and daughter Nadya dead in the labor camps, his only goal is to kill as many of the enemy as possible. Nothing else matters. KGB Major Mitya Arsentiev, Kotov’s former betrayer, learns that Marussia and Nadya are in fact alive, and is ordered personally by Stalin to find Kotov. Mitya, who is in love with Marussia, arrests then saves both mother and daughter. Unable to forgive Mitya’s betrayal of her beloved father, after a harrowing flight across occupied territory, Nadya joins an army medical unit, informing no one of her whereabouts. Arsentiev meanwhile learns that Kotov is fighting near the German-occupied zone nicknamed “the Citadel” - a living hell. SYNOPSIS BBTS 3 KGB Colonel Mitya's hunt for former Division Commander Kotov leads him to The Citadel - an impregnable German fortress on Russian soil where troops by the thousand are sacrificed in an ongoing siege. In this living hell, the two adversaries Mitya and Kotov are reunited in an encounter that will turn the destinies of both inside out. Acting on Stalin’s orders, Mitya presents Kotov with Stalin's gift - a rehabilitation order signed by the great leader himself. Kotov arrives in Moscow a General, and returns to the house he knew before his arrest. His wife is alive. But something is wrong. She has remarried. And she has a baby. Kotov’s fragile world falls apart… At his dacha, Stalin gives Kotov his mission. He will order the 15,000 strong barely-armed Black Infantry to attack the Citadel – and to their certain death, thus solving the problem of what’s to be done with those who lived peacefully under the German occupation. A pardon would insult to those who fought. There are too many for the labor camps. But between Kotov and the Germans… At the Citadel, his doomed troops are waiting. Kotov just has to give the order. As a young Red commander, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but now… In full General’s uniform, Kotov leads the suicidal charge himself. His daughter, a nurse who has never stopped believing that Kotov is alive, catches sight of him in the blood-soaked trenches and races to him across the minefield...Father and daughter are reunited amidst the heroic carnage.

Cast

Nikita Mikhalkov, Oleg Menshikov, Nadezhda Mikhalkova, Sergey Makovetskiy, Dmitriy Dyuzhev, Artur Smolyaninov

Crew

Producer(s): Leonid Vereshchagin
Director(s): Nikita Mikhalkov
Screenplay: Nikita Mikhalkov, Vladimir Moiseenko, Aleksandr Novototskiy-Vlasov, Gleb Panfilov
DP: Vladislav Opelyants
Editing: Svetolik Zajc
Original Music: Eduard Artemev
Set Design: Vladimir Aronin

Original Title: SOLEIL TROMPEUR 2 (THE INTRODUCTION / THE CITADEL)
Genre(s): Adventure, Drama, Historical Drama