Kalashnikov AK-47

The film covers Mikhail Kalashnikov's war years. Badly wounded on the Eastern Front as a tank sergeant in 1941, he begins sketching a weapon in hospital, and after the war his design enters service in 1949. The telling is compressed into those six years. The most notable thing about it is how it was made: Elena Kalashnikova, the designer's daughter and a consultant to the Kalashnikov Concern, took part in the production directly. That also explains the tone. There is no argument here, only an inventor. Yuri Borisov leads, Konstantin Buslov directed, and it opened in Russia on 20 February 2020. Its flaw is that what the weapon has done in the world is left entirely outside the film. Not one line addresses the consequences of the most widely used rifle on earth. The story otherwise follows the standard inventor template with no dissenting voice in it. Who it is for: viewers who like Soviet era biography and technical stories. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the subject handled critically.