This dramatic story of women in the war has won numerous international prizes and awards.
Nominated for the 1972 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, Russian director Stanislav Rostotski's epic WWII film is considered by many to be one of the best war movies ever made.
The film is set in Karelia (North-West of Russia near Finland) in 1941 during WWII. In a railway station far from the front line, senior sergeant Vaskov is stationed with a group of young female anti-aircraft gunners. Suddenly German paratroopers appear in the forest near their garrison. The senior sergeant and five female gunners, though outgunned and outnumbered, fight the Germans in the forest. All five female soldiers are killed during the course of the film, but in the end all sixteen German paratroopers are either killed or captured.