There Will Be No Leave Today
There Will be No Leave Today Russian ... is a 1959 student film by the Russian film directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Aleksandr Gordon. Based on a real postwar incident the film is about an army unit trying to dispose unexploded bombs to save a small town. It was Tarkovskys and Gordons second film, produced while being students at the State Institute of Cinematography VGIK. The film was aired on Soviet Central Television in 1959 and consecutive years on Victory Day. For a long time it was thought to be lost, but was rediscovered in the mid1990s.
After the entire town is evacuated, the soldiers carry the bombs one by one to the armored transport truck. The danger of explosion looms. As the army unit concludes its mission the population returns to the town as the bombs are simultaneously destroyed at the safe site.There Will Be No Leave Today was suggested by the State Institute of Cinematography VGIK to Tarkovsky and Gordon as a practical exercise for the two film students. The main objective for Tarkovsky and Gordon was not to produce a masterpiece, but to learn the basics of filmmaking through making an uncomplicated and easytoconsume film. The project was based on a real postwar incident. To prepare Tarkosky and Gordon interviewed witnesses of the incident and visited army barracks to study the military. The script was written jointly by Tarkovsky, Gordon and a third scriptwriter who was later replaced by a group of scriptwriters. The main storyline of the film was created in the beginning of writing the script, and survived with the exception of some minor changes. According to Gordon, Tarkovsky finished and contributed the majority of the script, with the hospital scenes and the civiliansoldier who volunteers to detonate one bomb being Tarkovskys ideas. ........
Source: Wikipedia
