The Forty-First (1956)

Interesting facts

The Forty-First is a 1956 Soviet war romance film based on the eponymous novel by Boris Lavrenyov. It was directed by Grigori Chukhrai, who also wrote the screenplay, and starred Izolda Izvitskaya and Oleg Strizhenov. The film, a remake of the 1927 movie with the same name, is set during the Russian Civil War and tells the story of a tragic romance between a female sniper of the Red Army and an officer of the White Army.

Background and production

The film was based on the story of the same name by Boris Lavrenyov, which had already been filmed as a silent film by Yakov Protazanov in 1927. In a 1956 letter to the literary historian Boris Geronimus, Lavrenyov wrote: "I never needed any documentary sources for writing The Wind [Veter, 1924] and The Forty-First.

The film was Grigori Chukhrai's directorial debut. The Mosfilm directorate was reluctant to authorize Koltunov's script, as the portrayal of a love story between Red and White soldiers was deemed inappropriate: the script had to be revised six times. However, Chukhrai had the support of the eminent directors Ivan Pyryev and Mikhail Romm.

Principal photography commenced in spring 1956 and ended in the summer. It was conducted in the Turkmen SSR, in the vicinity of Krasnovodsk and on the Caspian Sea's Cheleken Peninsula; the latter served as the location for the island scenes.

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