White Sun of the Desert

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sergio s @Sergio1308 Jan 5, 2026 This is one of my favorite movies. It’s often considered the first Russian "western," although it’s quite different from a classic Western. The film has a lot of humor and romance, and many of its lines became catchphrases that people in the former Soviet Union still use in everyday life. See more Aug 15, 2015 Apparently this film is super popular in Russia and cosmonauts watch it before they blast off. Anatoliy Kuznetsov is wandering home from war near the Caspian Sea and runs into a series of adventures that keep him from his beloved Katerina Matveyevna to whom he writes yearning voiceover narration (picturing her in a more temperate clime than the desert before him). Kuznetsov's character Sukhov is more Douglas Fairbanks than Randolph Scott but he finds himself in the Western tradition, as a lone gun (albeit with a couple of sidekicks of unknown loyalty) facing a gang of fierce bandits. In this variation, Sukhov is also sheltering the lead bandit Abdullah's nine wives (in full burkas) after they have been freed and he is at pains to explain to them that they can now have one husband each. The actual battles here are more whimsical than warlike and the film as a whole is sort of gently rollicking; however, this led me to drift off (despite its brief 80 minutes). Russians may get more out of this. See more Nov 3, 2013 Amusing, cultish film that real Russians nostalgically refer to as "Sovietski Propaganda." See more Jul 24, 2013 So many of my family's inside jokes are based on this film. See more Dec 9, 2012 What most people doesn't know is that in the Soviet Union and the east-block countries, western films was also popular. Not the western set in the american wild west, but a sub-genre known as "Red western" or "Revolutionary western", or "Osterns" to be more specific. This genre mostly takes place on the Central Asian steppes, during the Russian civil war, between red and white forces, where the focus is mainly set on the red ones. And therefor "Red Westerns". It has many of the same elements as an american western. Like: good vs. evil, lawlessness, and a lot of desert. One of the most famous of them all is Vladimir Motyl's "The White Sun of the Desert", in which we follow the red army soldier, Sukhov, who's after years of fighting finally can go home to his wife, Katerina. But while he wanders through the deserts of Turkmenistan, he's being stopped by a red army platoon who's chasing after the war lord, Abdullah, who works for the white army. But the reds have manage to liberate his twelve wives. But they can't bring them along, so they ask Sukhov to escort the twelve wives to the nearest village, where they can hide. But Abdullah has men everywhere. Although White Sun of the Desert isn't so well known internationally, it's actually one of the most popular Russian films of all time. It was a successful hit, that nobody expected. It has it's own cult status. Some of the quotes have even written itself into the Russian vocabulary, like "The East is a delicate matter" or "His grenades are of a wrong caliber". In other words, White Sun of the Desert is like an eastern "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". It's also become a tradition for every cosmonaut to watch this film before every space launches, to bring good luck. White Sun of the Desert is a wonderful combination of comedy, action and drama, with a lot of good action scenes, where Sukhov is often up against three men or more, and seems to always get out of that knot, easily. There's even some comic relief with Abdullah's twelve wives, who's wears burqas, and whom Sukhov constantly have to remind are free from the burdens of polygamy. Some comic relief does also the former czar officer Vereschagin give us, with his drinking and singing, longing back to the czarist era. But in this case I have to agree with the critics, that this film is in fact just another action, adventure escapist film, and it's suppose to be. But for me it isn't outstanding, or it's me who thought it was gonna be another Tarkovsky flick. But it's entertaining enough. Thumbs up. See more Dec 14, 2011 This movie is from Soviet-era Russia, and is an "Eastern", that is, a Western set in Central Asia. It is about a Soviet soldier who is dragged in some improbable sidequest on his journey back home after the civil war. Overall, it doesn't have any oustanding feature, but the storyline is unusual (by Western standards, that is) and simple and touching by it's happy-go-lucky undertones. See more Read all reviews

White Sun of the Desert

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