Time, Forward!

Plot summary

The film is set in the 1930s, depicting one day of the construction work of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (or Magnitka). The characters are construction workers and Komsomol members who are eager to work. Learning that their colleagues in Kharkov have set a record, they are mobilized in order to beat them. Everyone at the construction site has embraced socialist competition. They are ready to win at any cost to speed up construction and complete the work on time. A Moscow journalist comes to cover the scope of the great construction project, seeking a hero for his story.

Cast

Theme

Sviridov's orchestral suite written for this film was one of the most recognizable music pieces of the Soviet era, and became a sort of calling card for the Soviet Union itself. Since 1986 it has been used as the theme song of Vremya, the TV news program on USSR Central Television and Russian Channel One (although the tune has been re-orchestrated a few times since then). It was also used as the opening theme for the four-part Channel 4 documentary Spitfire Ace in Great Britain.

The theme has been used in subsequent films, most notably Theodore Ushev's Tower Bawher and Guy Maddin's short film "The Heart of the World".

Olympics association

It was performed at the close of the 2010 Olympic ceremony in Vancouver, conducted live by Valery Gergiev, to present the 2014 Winter Olympics, which were held in Sochi, Russia. At the 2014 opening ceremony in Sochi, the theme was used again during a scene depicting national industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union. The dancers wore red and black costumes while they interacted with huge figurative tractors, giant ditch-diggers, gears, and similar engine parts. The Russian rhythmic gymnastics team used the Overture in their gold medal winning all-around routine at the 2016 Summer Olympics.