The First Echelon

The First Echelon
Directed by	Mikhail Kalatozov
Written by	Nikolai Pogodin
Starring	Vsevolod Sanayev Nikolay Annenkov Oleg Yefremov Izolda Izvitskaya
Cinematography	Sergey Urusevsky Yuri Ekelchik
Edited by	Zoya Verevkina
Music by	Dmitri Shostakovich
Production company	Mosfilm
Release date	1955 (1955)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

The First Echelon (Russian: Первый эшелон, translit. Pervyy eshelon) is a 1955 Soviet war romance film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, for which Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the music. The film tells the story of the touching romance between Komsomol secretary Alexey Uzorov and tractor driver Anna Zalogina on the background of Virgin Lands Campaign in Kazakhstan. Part of Shostakovich's score was used as the basis for the Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1. "Waltz II" from the suite was used in the 1999 Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut.

Cast

• Vsevolod Sanayev as Alexey Yegorovich Dontsov, state farm director
• Nikolay Annenkov as Kashtanov, secretary of the RC
• Oleg Yefremov as Alexey Uzorov
• Izolda Izvitskaya as Anna Zalogina
• Nina Doroshina as Nelly Panina
• Vyacheslav Voronin as Troyan
• Khoren Abrahamyan as Varten Vartanyan
• Tatiana Doronina as Zoya

External links

• The First Echelon at IMDb
• Review by Karl J. Kipling
• The Cambridge Companion to Shostakovich