Returning to the 'A'

Returning to the 'A'
Returning to the 'A'
Directed by	Egor Konchalovsky
Written by	Vladimir Moiseenko; Alexander Novototsky-Vlasov
Produced by	Arman Asenov
Starring	Seydulla Moldahanov; Denis Nikiforov; Farhat Abdraimov; Gosha Kutsenko; Andrey Smolyakov
Cinematography	Anton Antonov
Edited by	Ekaterina Pivneva; Alexey Miklashevskii
Music by	Victor Sologub
Release date	2011;
Running time	110 minutes
Countries	Kazakhstan; Russia
Language	Russian

Returning to the 'A' (

Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards,^[1] but it did not make the final shortlist.^[2]

Plot

A young, creative team of TV Russian and Kazakh cinematographers are sent on a perilous journey from

GRU Soviet Union under the command of legendary Afghan war Kara Major (Arman Asenov) and that he also has personal reasons to return to Afghanistan.^[3]

Production

While the film takes place on the territory of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, all the shooting took place near Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan.[4]

The film had several working titles: Afghan, Kara Major, Real Colonel; It was eventually titled Returning to the 'A'. In preparation for filming the filmmakers have reviewed a lot of documentaries about the war in Afghanistan. In one of them it talked about the closed Politburo meeting chaired by Leonid Brezhnev, which was held on 12 December 1979. In addition to Brezhnev it was attended by Suslov, Ustinov, Chernenko, Andropov and others. It was then that the final decision to send troops to Afghanistan, issued in the form of a secret decree № 176/125 of the CPSU called The situation in A. Later, the document was declassified.^[5]