Attack and Retreat

1964 Italian film

1964 (1964)

CountriesItaly
USSRLanguagesItalian
Russian

Attack and Retreat (Italian: Italiani brava gente, Russian: Они шли на Восток, romanized: Oni shli na Vostok) is a Soviet-Italian war drama film directed by Giuseppe De Santis and Dmitri Vasilyev in 1964. The movie follows the steps of Italian soldiers of the Italian Army in Russia fighting on the Eastern Front on Hitler's side. Heavily based on diaries and memories of real war veterans.

Plot

During the Second World War in July 1941, Colonel Sermonti led an Italian regiment sent to the Soviet Union as part of the CSIR to assist German forces on the Eastern Front. The initial enthusiasm of the Italian soldiers quickly gave way to a harsh reality - vast landscapes, challenging weather, hostile locals, mistreatment by the Germans, tough battles, scorched-earth tactics, strained relations with allies, and a stalled offensive near Moscow all took a toll on their morale.

The troops' spirits collapsed definitively the following year when the CSIR, now part of the 8th Italian Army, supported German forces during the second summer offensive. The Soviets launched a counteroffensive, forcing the Italians to defend on the banks of the Don River and eventually retreat.

The story revolves around a group of soldiers, including Loris, a naive Romagnol farmer who died while following a Russian girl into a sunflower field; Collodi, a Tuscan typesetter who perished due to a comrade's thoughtless action; Calò, a Sicilian who, along with the colonel, became a Soviet prisoner; Major Ferri, a hidden fascist killed by fellow Italians during the retreat; and Libero, a Roman plumber who, after Giuseppe's death, left the group, attempting to return alone and succumbing to hardships in a storm.

Cast

Arthur Kennedy as Ferro Maria Ferri
Peter Falk as Lieutenant Mario Salvioni
Zhanna Prokhorenko as Katya
Raffaele Pisu as Libero Gabrielli
Tatyana Samojlova as Sonya
Andrea Checchi as Colonel Sermonti
Riccardo Cucciolla as Giuseppe Sanna
Valeri Somov as Giuliani
Nino Vingelli as Amalfitano
Lev Prygunov as Loris Bazzocchi
Grigory Mikhaylov as Russian Partisan (as Grigorij Mikhailov)
Erwin Knausmyuller as German colonel
Gino Pernice as Collodi
Boris Kozhukhov as Major
Vincenzo Polizzi as Sicilian

External links

Attack and Retreat at IMDb
Boris Bondarenko (1976). Pyramide. Moscow: Soviet writer. 472 p.

Films directed by Giuseppe De Santis

Tragic Hunt (1947) • Bitter Rice (1949) • No Peace Under the Olive Tree (1950) • Rome 11:00 (1952) • A Husband for Anna (1953) • Days of Love (1954) • The Wolves (1956) • The Road a Year Long (1958) • La garçonnière (1960) • Attack and Retreat (1965) • Un apprezzato professionista di sicuro avvenire (1972)