Liberation - Part 2 : Breakthrough

The Allies land in Sicily and Mussolini is arrested in Italy. At the same time the Soviet army is preparing a large offensive towards Kyiv. Lieutenant Colonel Lukin's regiment crosses the Dnieper as the division's vanguard. What the soldiers do not know is that their crossing is a deception meant to hide the real attack, and that they will pay for it. This is the second part of Yuri Ozerov's five-film Liberation series. It belongs to the Soviet Union's tradition of the state-backed grand war narrative, with large-scale front line scenes and a crowded cast of extras. On one side there is the daily state of the soldier at the front, on the other the decisions made in the staff rooms. The telling stays tied to the official version of history, and it is worth watching with that in mind.