They Fought for Their Country

They Fought for Their Country (Russian: Они сражались за Родину, Oni srazhalis' za Rodinu) is a 1975 Soviet war film based on the eponymous novel written by Mikhail Sholokhov and directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. It was entered into the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. The film is the story of a Soviet platoon fighting a rearguard action during the German drive on Stalingrad. The film was selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Cast

Vasily Shukshin as Piotr Lopakhin

Vyacheslav Tikhonov as Nikolay Strel'tsov

Sergei Bondarchuk as Ivan Zvyagintsev

Georgi Burkov as Alexandr Kopytovskij

Yuri Nikulin as Nekrasov

Ivan Lapikov as Poprischenko

Nikolai Gubenko as Lieutenant

Andrei Rostotsky

Nikolai Volkov

Nikolai Shutko as Lisichenko

Yevgeni Samojlov

Nonna Mordyukova as Natalya Stepanovna

Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina as Glasha

Innokenti Smoktunovsky as Doctor