In the mid-50s of the last century, at the dawn of the Khrushchev thaw, an unknown young director Grigory Chukhray, whose debut - the film "Forty - first" - became a bid for big cinema, quickly and boldly broke into the Soviet cinema. Then, one after another, followed "The Ballad of the Soldier", "Clear Sky", which became a real breakthrough to historical truth and an example of civic courage.