The Fate of a Man

The Fate of a Man

1959. USSR. Directed by Sergey Bondarchuk. Screenplay by Yuri Lukin, Fyodor Shakhmagonov, Mikhail Sholokhov, based on a short story by Sholokhov. With Bondarchuk, Pavlik Boriskin, Zoya Kirienko, Pavel Volkov. The Fate of a Man was a Soviet war epic directed by and starring Sergei Bondarchuk, who, after this promising feature debut, went on to make his spectacular and grandiose adaptation of War and Peace in 1964. Based on a popular, patriotic short story by Nobel laureate Mikhail Sholokhov (And Quiet Flows the Don), the film traces, in flashback, the dramatic life of a truck driver buffeted by historical circumstance into fighting in the Russian Civil War, enduring the famine of 1922, crossing enemy lines during the Second World War, and surviving a German concentration camp—only to find that his remarkable saga will meet a tragic and painful end. Preserved by Gosfilmofond, Moscow; courtesy Mosfilm. With thanks to the International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. In Russian; English subtitles. 103 min.