Nine Days of One Year

Two scientists work at the centre of Soviet nuclear physics. One is Gusev, who takes his experiments to the end and accepts the risk in his own body; the other is Kulikov, more cautious and more sardonic. They are close friends and they love the same woman. Gusev is exposed to a high dose of radiation during an experiment and carries on working without telling anybody. The film follows nine days of one year. Mikhail Romm's film does not tell science as a story of triumph. Its question is how far a person should follow a result they cannot foresee, and who pays for it. With a coolness rarely seen in Soviet cinema up to then, it sets heroism and attrition side by side. Aleksei Batalov and Innokenty Smoktunovsky play the two scientists. The tone is markedly distant from the official optimism of its period.