Rzhev 2019 WEB-DL 1080p

Pivovarov's documentary is his own investigation. It is based on the evidence provided by participants in the events as well as on previously classified archival documents. In early 1942, as a result of the famous counter-offensive, the front line was moved 150-200 kilometers away from Moscow. Soviet troops under the command of Marshal Zhukov launched three offensives trying to cut the bend of the front line in the direction of Moscow, known as the "Rzhev Salient", and surround the 9th Army of the Group "Center" located there. The battles for Rzhev, which lasted more than a year, from the beginning of 1942 to March 1943, were among the most tragic and bloody episodes of the Great Patriotic War. Rzhev and the neighboring townships were destroyed completely. Pivovarov's docudrama is the attempt to use modern cinema language to tell the story of heroism, mistakes and tragedies which, for many years, were wrongly called "local battles."