One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

The film is set in a labour camp. The camp belongs to the Gulag system of the Stalin years. Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner there. The account follows one ordinary day of his. It begins with the morning bell. The cold is severe. The prisoners are lined up to be counted. Then they are marched out to a building site. The food tin and the bread ration sit at the centre of the day. Even a small piece of tobacco has value. The guards punish the slightest lapse. Ivan tries to get through the day on his feet. The film was adapted from a novel. Its author had lived through the camps himself. The filming was done in northern Norway. Tom Courtenay and Espen Skjønberg appear in the one hundred five minute film, a Norwegian, British and American production Casper Wrede finished in 1970.