Oleg Sokolov

Cologne towards the end of the Second World War. The city is in ruins, everyone is afraid, many are dead. It is a time of great inhumanity. Cologne’s young Edelweiss Pirates refuse to submit to the pressure of the Nazi regime. They fight with the Hitler Youth and scrawl anti-war propaganda on walls. Karl is an Edelweiss Pirate; his younger brother, Peter, is in the Hitler Youth movement. The two young men have been alone ever since their mother’s death in a bombing raid; their father is serving at the front, and their older brother, Otto, has been killed in action. Otto’s financée, Cilly, is doing her best to survive the war with her children. Carl is trying to help her.

A painting about the frontline life of a soldier during the Great Patriotic War.

When the war began, graduates of the choreographic school decided to make their way to the front. Young ballerinas Alka and Nadia also dreamed of exploits, but instead they were waiting for routine work as nurses in the hospital. The girls still achieved their goal and got to the front line, where Nadia died at the first shelling. After recovering from a severe concussion, Alka again went to the front line, to the Marine reconnaissance platoon. She received her first task – to get a "tongue"…