The Outskirts (Окраина)

The history goes all wrong.

Things went wrong as it were, and turned to the worst.

In 199... there came the drill workers to the Romanovsky village

and started drilling the oil well.

The locals made a riot but they were quickly subdued.

They were shown a certificate, with 4 state seals in it.

According to it, the 13.5 thousand hectares

of the former collective farm "Fatherland",

which was now divided into minor farmsteads,

all the Romanovsky land has been sold,

to whom no one knew.

This is how this injustice, or even absurdity,

came about. Such a shame...

"THE MORNING OF THE XXI CENTURY" company

GOSKINO, RUSSIA, 1998

Directed by Petr Lutsik

Director of photography - Nikolai Ivasiv

Production designer - Andrei Bessolitsyn

Sound by Vyacheslav Klyutchnikov

The chief consultant - Leonid Rybakov

Starring:

Yury Dubrovin as Philip Safronov

Nikolai Olyalin as Kolka Poluyanov

Aleksei Vanin as Vasily Perfiliev

Aleksei Pushkin as Panka Morozov

Rimma Markova as Panka's mother

Victor Stepanov as the oil baron

Anatoly Koscheev, Victor Venes as the Lykov brothers

Aleksandr Vdovin as Makhotin

Galina Zolotareva as Makhotin's wife

Oleg Makshantsev as Simavin

Vyacheslav Kulakov as Simavin's son

THE OUTSKIRTS

Come on, drink it, come on!

Then we'll go shoot some hares and jackals!

Uncle, stop shouting. I don't like that.

It's a nice rifle. From the last war with the Germans.

A nice rifle indeed.

Only you must be really drunk, Philip Ilyich,

to talk about jackals in our parts.

And there are no hares left either. The drill workers dealt with them.

But the rifle is nice, really.

Maybe they didn't kill them all. Maybe they left one for us.

The other day I saw tracks on both sides of the river.

Come on, drink some.

Have some egg.

The blizzard is coming. Come back, or we'll freeze!

What kind of hunting is this, with all the beasts hiding...

Never mind the blizzard.

The smaller beasts hide but the bigger ones still go out.

I wish I would just freeze to death.

Uncle, the wolfs!

And you said there were no wolves left!

Here I am! Here I am, my darlings!

As big as life!

What happened to you, Fyodor?

I got chewed by the dogs, Philip Ilyich.

In my old age, I got the dogs unleashed at me.

We went to cut down dead trees next to the brook,

and they set their dogs on Daddy.

They took our horse, too, those drill workers.

The horse!

They harass the man on his own land!

Hello, woman!

Give me your son!

What for?

Starting a riot again?

Do you want my Panya killed alongside with you?

And that army of yours is not that big!

However many there is, they're all with us.

The rest of the villagers, they hope to move to the city.

What kind of farmers are they, damn it?

They wet their pants when asked to defend their own land!

Besides, I'm not going to riot. We're not bandits.

And we're not going, despite some suggestions,

to hang the drill workers upside down.

They're just subordinate to someone else.

All I want is to clear one thing out quietly.

How come our land got sold without us knowing?

And who are the smart alecs that sold it?

And we have our guns just in case.

The times are rough, you know.

You too, Evdokiya, used to have as much as 40 hectares

of pasture and meadows.

So, will you give us your son?

Or maybe you, Morozovs, are going to the city too?

To some wretched factory?

Take him. Or he'll croak on this stove-bench anyway.

Why should you need me? I'll be just a burden to you.

And what kind of help can I be?

I've been sick for 2 months already. Let me die in peace at home.

Why do we need him? He'll be nothing but trouble.

It's ok, at least he'll increase our number.

A bad sheep is better than nothing.

Don't worry, you'll die on the road!

Remember, Philip Ilyich, I'm giving you my only son!

Be strict with him but take only smart risks and don't abandon him.

Dead or alive - bring him back to me!

I promise that.

Hey! What is it?

Look, Safronov, we talked it over with my brother,

- We decided not to go. - We changed our mind.

They'll kill us all, and we've got kids, you know.

- Shall I kill them? - No.

First we'll go visit our former collective farm chairman.

I've been wondering why he moved out of the farmstead.

- So we'll ask him. - And if he chooses not to answer?

We'll keep asking then. Quietly.

We talked it over with my brother.

I'll go with you after all. In case it all works out.

- But why only one of you? - In case it doesn't work out.

At least the brother'll be home and having gone nowhere then.

The war's started.

I don't like that.

Cheer up, Lykov. We'll take care of you.

We just need to get near that house.

Listen, Vasily Ivanovich, it's me, Safronov.

Haven't you recognized me?

I've recognized you all right. And two of your pals as well.

I just can't make out the third one.

Then stop shooting. We just need to talk!

We've got nothing to talk about!

And I have the right to shoot you bandits on my private property!

And I sent my family to the city.

- So, were you waiting for us? - You, or the likes of you.

Tell me, Philip Ilyich, have I killed Lykov?

Not yet. You only wounded him.

It's a shame. 'Cause I aimed right at his heart.

Why've you stopped talking?

We're just wondering: Should we tear you into pieces,

or just skin you alive

when we get you, you son-of-a-bitch.

Surrender, you bastard, or else I'll blow you up with a grenade!

How come you have a grenade?

I don't. I just wanna scare him.

Kolya, you climb the fence over there.

Panka, you go to the left,

and I'll go to the right. And you, Lykov, stay here.

You may shoot and raise your hat.

Only don't stand up yourself! You better call him all kinds of names!

As he's a spiteful man, he'll start shooting at you.

Then we'll get him from three sides at once.

And mind all of you: You can wound him,

but we need him alive.

Vasily Ivanovich, it's me!

Remember, I asked your daughter's hand!

Ah, Panya!

Why won't you talk to us?

We came to see you,

and you started shooting at us.

Can't you just talk like a man?

You're so spiteful.

Let's take him to the ice-hole.

Tell us, Vasily Ivanovich,

what sort of trick did you pull with our land?

I wish I killed you, bastards!

You and me are almost relatives, so to speak.

We're both war veterans, we shed our blood for our country.

- You have two Orders of Glory. - Three!

And you must have been just a cook's apprentice!

Take him by the hair. My hands are getting numb from the cold.

Bastard! He bit off my finger!

He got away, the bastard! Gone with the current!

The gaff, get the gaff or we'll lose him!

Damn it, where am I going to get the gaff?

Perfiliev! Alive!

There is an opening in the ice over there, Philip Ilyich.

There must be a hot spring running underneath.

That Vasily Ivanovich, that stubborn devil!

Is he dead?

Don't worry, we'll resurrect him.

Some 4 years ago enterprisers from the town came to my place,

and an apparatchik with them.

We talked about cooperation. They promised fabulous profits to our farm.

They treated me to all kinds of foods and drinks for the whole week.

And I signed some kind of a paper, the idiot.

After that they sent us two old tractors,

a truckful of brick, some rusty metal beams.

They made me a personal present - a farm motorcycle.

Then their business failed and they vanished into thin air.

I don't even know the apparatchik's whereabouts.

But one enterpriser lives in the district nearby.

So I'll take you to him.

It's all my fault and I'll expiate my sin with my own blood.

It's just that I don't like the cold when I'm thawing.

I was wounded twice in the winter during the war.

I got frozen dead into the earth but was saved both times.

- How old are you? - I'm 73 according to the passport.

But I added an odd year just to get drafted in the army.

And never mind my age, Safronov.

I just came short of the ammo or you all would be dead.

But for Kolka, I'd have run away to the steppe.

Too bad about my high boots.

I'll wear them out.

Tell me frankly, Philip Ilyich.

Will you consider me as one of you who's been wounded or not?

Will you give our land back to my brother and me?

It's a bargain, pal.

You came with us and shed your blood for us.

And through that you won't be forgotten.