Counterattack (1985)

A military drama filmed at the Kyiv Feature Film Studio named after Alexander Dovzhenko in 1985 by director Vladimir Shevchenko. The film tells the story of General Nikolai Vatutin, who, after the liberation of Kyiv and Zhitomir, decides to stop the rapid offensive. The German troops of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein begin an active offensive. There are no bridges across the Dnieper, making it difficult for Soviet troops to gain support. And German troops are increasingly receiving fresh reinforcements from the west. Against this background, Vatutin decides to retreat, giving the newly liberated Zhitomir and Brusilov to the Germans. Stalin doesn’t like this and demands that Vatutin launch an offensive against Manstein’s troops. To do this, he sends General Konstantin Rokossovsky to replace Vatutin, but he believes in the correctness of the latter’s actions. In addition, General Vatutin learns from intelligence officers about Manstein’s plan to attack Korosten and decides to carry out an operation to disinformation the enemy. This forces the deceived Mansteins to change the direction of the offensive, and at this time Soviet troops are conducting an active offensive and defeating German groups.

Documentary director Vladimir Nikitovich Shevchenko, a native of the city of Balta in the Odessa region, was appointed to work on the film. Work on the script was entrusted to a native of Kyiv, writer and playwright Igor Yuryevich Malyshevsky. At that time, several dozen films, mostly documentaries, were created based on his scripts at various studios in Ukraine. Among the most famous is the one-and-a-half-hour epic about the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi invaders, “The Fiery Path.” At one time it was even shown at the UN.

Malyshevsky began work on the script and finished it in a short time. Subsequently, the author revised it into the book “Counterstrike”, published in 1990. When selecting an actor for the role of Vatutin, Shevchenko almost immediately chose Viktor Pavlovich Pavlov. In addition to the fact that thanks to a number of roles in films such as “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed”, “In War, as in War”, “Major Whirlwind”, “His Majesty’s Adjutant” and many others, he was widely popular, Pavlov had a portrait resemblance to the main character. Who to choose for the role of Zhukov was also not particularly a question - this “place” had long been reserved for Mikhail Aleksandrovich Ulyanov and personally approved by the marshal himself. The main female role in the film was played by actress Elena Shilkina, who played “Corporal Buttercup”, whom the main character in the film constantly called “countrywoman”. The cinematographer of the film was the honored artist Mikhail Kirillovich Cherny, but it so happened that while working on the film on July 12, 1985, he died. He was replaced by his son, cameraman Alexander Mikhailovich Cherny. Colonel General Alexey Grigorievich Rodin was invited as the main consultant for the film. Troops from the Kyiv Military District were brought in for extras and filming of battle scenes. Since both the director and screenwriter primarily specialized in documentaries, “Counterstrike” was filmed as a documentary film using a large number of newsreels. So the director released a film-memory and a film-dedication to the soldiers who defended the Kyiv land in November-December 1943. Counterstrike was released on December 16, 1985. It did not collect a large box office, but was then regularly broadcast on various television channels and enjoyed considerable popularity among viewers.

Film crew:
Stage director: Vladimir Shevchenko;
Screenwriter: Igor Malyshevsky
Director of photography: Mikhail Cherny, Alexander Cherny
Production designer: Victor Migulko
Composer: Evgeniy Stankovych
Song by Boris Vakhnyuk

Cast:
Viktor Pavlov - Army General Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin
Mikhail Ulyanov - Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
Gennady Korolkov - Lieutenant General Krainyukov
Vsevolod Platov - Lieutenant General Rybalko
Alexander Denisov - Lieutenant General Bogolyubov
Oleg Shklovsky - Colonel Dragunsky
Nikolai Burlyaev - Colonel General Moskalenko
Alexander Goloborodko - Army General Rokossovsky
Anatoly Khostikoev - Lieutenant General Chernyakhovsky
Sergei Ponomarenko - Major General Epishev
Guram Pirtskhalava - Colonel General Leselidze
Fyodor Shmakov - Trofimych
Valery Svishchev
Vadim Kirilenko - Antsiferov
Bekzod Khamraev - Rakhimov
Yuri Kritenko - Kalchenko
Vladimir Vikhrov - starley
Elena Shilkina - Corporal Buttercup
Boris Boldyrevsky - Akkuratov
Vladimir Mazur - Sergeant Major Pylyp
Georgy Dvornikov - cinematographer
Hariy Liepins - Field Marshal Manstein
Paul Butkevich - Colonel General Routh
Valery Potapenko - Lieutenant General Busse
Uldis Dumpis - Wolf-Guttger
Gennady Bolotov - Colonel of the Quartermaster Service

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