''Bastards'' (russian: Сволочи, ''Svolochi'') is a 2006 Russian

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

Synopsis

In the Soviet Union, 1943, a group of teenage convicts are secretly trained for a guerrilla mission to stop the actions of a German army group called "Edelweiss".

Plot summary

The story is set in the Soviet Union during the Second World War in the year 1943. Colonel Vishnevetskiy is released from prison to organize a school of military training for saboteurs. Students,14–15 years old criminals, come from prisons and correction colonies. After harsh training they are sent to destroy a German oil depot deep in the Carpathian mountains.

Controversy

The film's release caused massive controversy in Russia, where some deemed it "state-supported anti-Soviet

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

". The plot for the film, written by Kunin, involved a story of teenagers with a criminal background who were caught by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

during the

Great Patriotic war The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

, then trained as

saboteurs Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identiti ...

in special schools and thrown into the German countryside to face a certain death. After the film was shown in Russia, the

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Feder ...

responded with a press-release, stating that archives of security services of Russia and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

do not have any documents confirming the existence of "kid saboteur schools", and that there are no archive documents about missions to send saboteur groups consisting of teenagers into the adversary's rear. Although they did state that there are archive documents evidencing the use of kids in saboteur purposes by special services of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. While the advertising campaign of the film claimed it was based on real accounts, after the controversy arose both the writer and the director confessed the plot was mere fiction. While the film won the MTV Movie Awards, Russia for 2007, the famous director

Vladimir Menshov Vladimir Valentinovich Menshov (russian: Влади́мир Валенти́нович Меньшо́в; 17 September 1939 – 5 July 2021)Dmitry Puchkov Dmitry Yuryevich Puchkov (russian: link=no, Дми́трий Ю́рьевич Пучко́в; born August 2, 1961), also known as Goblin (russian: Гоблин), is a Russian media personality most known for his humorous English-to-Russian film ...

commented on the film making: Puchkov also sarcastically commented on the information that Russian school students were obligated to watch this film: "Have our children to know the history of the country? Well, now they know it: if anything happens, they would be caught and sent to face certain death."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bastards (Film) 2006 films 2000s Russian-language films Eastern Front of World War II films Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era Films based on Russian novels Films directed by Aleksandr Atanesyan Films set in 1943 Russian World War II films Russian coming-of-age drama films Russian war drama films