Twenty Days Without War

Five years after his intriguing debut, Proverka No Dorogakh, director Alexei German returned with this fascinating examination of differing attitudes toward war. The story concerns Maj. Lopatin (Yuri Nikulin), a writer who goes home to Tashkent to spend a 20-day leave following the Battle of Stalingrad. There, he works with a film crew making a movie based on his articles. His experiences with the crew and in town soon convince him that the romantic views of combat held on the homefront are far different from the harsh realities of frontline warfare. In many ways a precursor to the American war films of Oliver Stone, this excellent study of varying perceptions was banned in the Soviet Union for several years.~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide