Story of a Real Man

Alexey Meresyev was a fighter pilot during the war. One day his plane is shot down. His wounds are severe. Both his legs are amputated below the knee. A long period of adjustment begins after that. First he learns to walk on prosthetic legs. Then he learns to dance. In the end he flies again. The film tells this as a war drama. The period of adjustment is the main line of the account. Returning to flight is where that line arrives. The account starts from a real life. Pavel Kadochnikov and Nikolai Okhlopkov take the leads, with Vasili Merkuryev also in the cast, in Aleksandr Stolper’s Soviet film of 1948.