T-34

In 1941, a young lieutenant named Nikolay Ivushkin commands a single T-34 tank in a lopsided clash with a German armored unit near Moscow. His small crew destroys far more than they should and Ivushkin survives, but he is taken prisoner by the officer who will become his opposite number, Klaus Jäger. Years later, in the spring of 1944, Jäger now runs a training ground for German tank troops and needs a captured Soviet T-34 as a live target, with Ivushkin forced to command it alongside other prisoners. What the Germans intend as a demonstration becomes the framework for an escape attempt, as Ivushkin assembles a crew and looks for a way out.

Alexey Sidorov directed and wrote the film, the first of his features in chronological order, followed by The World Champion and Queen of France. Alexander Petrov plays Ivushkin, with Victor Dobronravov, Irina Starshenbaum, Vinzenz Kiefer, Petr Skvortsov and Semyon Treskunov among the credited cast of 35. Mosfilm, the Cinema Fund, Russia-1 and Mars Media Entertainment produced it, on a budget of roughly 8 million USD; worldwide grosses reached about 36 million USD, several times its cost. On IMDb the film sits at 6.8/10 from around 17,000 votes, while on TMDB it holds 7.2/10 from a much smaller base of 968 votes.