Burnt by the Sun 2
| Burnt by the Sun 2: Prestanding | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Nikita Mikhalkov |
| Produced by | Nikita Mikhalkov |
| Written by | Nikita Mikhalkov |
| Starring | Nikita Mikhalkov Oleg Menshikov |
| Cinematography | Vladislav Opelyants |
| Edited by | Svetolik Zajc |
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Production
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Three T Productions
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| Distributed by | Central Partnership |
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Release date
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Running time
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181 minutes |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Budget | $55 million |
| Box office | $8.2 million |
Burnt by the Sun 2 (Russian: Утомлённые солнцем 2, translit. Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Predstoyanie) is a 2010 Russian drama film directed by and starring Nikita Mikhalkov. The film consists of two parts: Exodus (Предстояние, literally 'Prestanding') and Citadel (Цитадель). It is the sequel to Mikhalkov's 1994 film Burnt by the Sun, set in the Eastern Front of World War II. Burnt by the Sun 2 had the largest production budget ever seen in Russian cinema ($55 mln), but it turned out to be Russia's biggest box office flop, and received negative reviews from critics both in Russia and abroad.
The film begins in June 1941. Five years have passed since the lives and destinies of Colonel Sergei Petrovich Kotov, his wife Maroussia, their daughter Nadia, as well as those of Mitya and the Sverbitski family, were irrevocably changed: it has meant five years of incarceration for General Kotov (Nikita Mikhalkov), the former Revolutionary hero betrayed by Stalin. He escapes certain death in the Gulag and fights on the Eastern Front as a private.
It has been five years of terror for his wife Maroussia, without the husband she believes is dead and with a daughter who has rejected her. Nadia has spent five years in hiding, proud of her father whom she refuses to disown and whom she believes is alive, despite all reports to the contrary.
Mitya (Oleg Menshikov) survived his suicide attempt, and reluctantly continues to execute the orders of a regime he holds in contempt. Stalin, with his nation under attack by former ally Adolf Hitler, recalls many of those whom he has had exiled to the GULAG. He tries to mobilize the Soviet population – by any means necessary – to rise against the threat of Nazism.
Kotov is now fighting at the front. Nadia, who has survived an attempted rape by German soldiers, is now a nurse risking her own life to save others.
The film received mostly negative reviews from both Russian and western critics. It was panned for historical inaccuracies, retconning, bad acting and other failures. It was criticized for abruptly breaking with the continuity of the first film, including mysteriously resurrecting characters presumed dead and changing their ages. For example, according to the first film, Nadia would have been 11 in 1941, but she is portrayed as an adult.
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