

122 minutes
10/29/1978
The action takes place during the Great Patriotic War. Peasant Matryona Bystrova loses her husband at the front, then her eldest son goes missing. Matryona decides to save the youngest son at all costs and shelters him from being drafted into the army in the attic of the house until the end of the war. But it turns out that saving her son, she condemns him to spiritual death, and herself to torment of conscience. A private story about the mother of a deserter grows to epic proportions...

Nonna Mordyukova
as Matryona

Vadim Spiridonov
as Stepan

Andrey Nikolaev
as Mitya

Valentina Telichkina
as Nina

Valeriy Nosik
as Grishka the postman

Vladimir Gusev
as Misha

Galina Mikeladze
as Katya

Arkady Smirnov
as Kornakov

Vera Kuznetsova
as Kornakova

Nikolay Dupak
as chairman

Ivan Ryzhov
as priest

Valentina Ushakova
as Mariya

Irina Korablyova
as Tanya

Nina Agapova
as Faina

Vladimir Basov Ml.
as Petya

Vera Burlakova
as villager

Mariya Vinogradova
as old woman

Lidiya Dranovskaya
as villager

Vladimir Zamanskiy
as military сommissar

Svetlana Zhgun
as villager

Antonina Maksimova
as villager

Vladimir Pitsek
as truck driver

Tamara Yarenko
as villager

Tatyana Tashkova
as Lida
Tatyana Ignatova
as villager (uncredited)

Daniil Netrebin
as district inspector (uncredited)

Yuri Suchkov
as photographer (uncredited)
Vera Blagovidova
as old woman (uncredited)

Tamara Loginova
as Stepan's traveling companion (uncredited)

Tatyana Kuznetsova
as guest at Tanya's wedding (uncredited)

Stanislav Korenev
as secretary

Serhiy Pidhornyi
as Semyonov

Larisa Kronberg
as сельская жительница

Vladimir Isayev