“The Dawns Here Are Quiet”

I finished watching the Russian film The Dawns Here Are Quiet last night. It is offered as a four-part series on Amazon Prime Video. It is a remake of the Soviet era film from 1972 which was an Academy Award nominee. It is based upon the book of the same name by Boris Vasilyev.

The setting of the film is an anti-aircraft battery set behind the lines in Russian Karelia during WWII aka the Great Patriotic War. The unit is commanded by Sergeant Fedot Vaskov who was wounded during the Winter War. His original platoon of men is replaced due to fights caused by drinking and womanizing. Vaskov asks for “teetotalers” who aren’t going to womanize. Neither he nor the women in the village are very happy with the replacements. That is because Vaskov gets two squads of women soldiers.

IMDB has this synopsis of the film.

Russia, May 1942. Well behind friendly lines a veteran sergeant commands a small outpost, consisting of two anti-aircraft guns. His men are a rowdy, undisciplined bunch and after one incident too many they are taken off his hands. To his surprise, the replacements are women. Soon after, the Germans send a team of crack saboteurs into the area to blow up a vital railway link. The only thing standing between them and completing their mission is the sergeant and his small inexperienced team.

The bulk of the film deals with how Vaskov and five selected women soldiers track and combat the Germans. Each of the women has her own backstory as shown with flashbacks. These range from being exiled to Siberia to being widowed by the war. The flashbacks, rather than being a distraction, just add to the whole story.

In addition to being available on Prime Video, I did find all four parts of the film on YouTube. Here are the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

The film is in Russian with English subtitles. I usually pass on such movies. This time I’m glad I didn’t.


4 thoughts on ““The Dawns Here Are Quiet””

  1. I watched this on prime also earlier this yes. I enjoyed the series.

    I have gotten into finding these old or really never heard of WWII movies from the Soviet perspective.

    1. Same here. The actress who plays the female sergeant, Ekaterina Vilkova, also was in The Attackers as a female Red Air Force fighter pilot. Another good one is T-34.

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