OLD FRIENDS

Leningrad. June 21, 1941. At the home of schoolteacher Elizaveta Ivanovna, her daughter Tonya’s classmates gather. Tomorrow is graduation - today is Tonya’s birthday. The friends joke, laugh, argue, make plans for the future, and, of course, talk about love: two best friends are in love with Tonya.

But there will be no graduation night in these young people’s lives. Their «graduation» will come not in the evening, but at dawn - straight to the war. The war will put them through a harsh test of maturity, of loyalty to love, and of faithfulness to their convictions.

We will witness two more such meetings of old friends: June 21, 1942 - during the Siege of Leningrad - and the first June after the war. The war will scatter Elizaveta Ivanovna’s pupils along distant roads and change many of their fates. Not everyone will endure the trials of war. Not everyone will return, and those who do will never be the same again. What will they become? Which paths will each of them choose?

«Old Friends» is a blend of sincerity, lyricism, human warmth, and gentle humor - living side by side with an anxious concern for the young heroes’ destinies.

Characters and Cast:

Elizaveta Ivanovna Fedotova (teacher) - Marina Gantseva
Tonya (her daughter) - Viktoriya Pavlenko
Vladimir Dorokhin - Artur Khakimov
Alexander Zaytsev - Aleksey Fitzner
Semyon Gorin, Bobočka - Igor Mitskevich, Vasiliy Popov
Tamara Solovyova, Milochka - Elena Gurtovenko, Valeriya Nikolaeva (student)
Aleksey Subbotin - Ilya Shtoppel
Yakov Daryalov - Artur Kizilov
Dusya Ryazanova - Dinara Urbisinova
Sima (age 13) - Elizaveta Peskelidi (student)
Sima (age 16) - Karina Kudekova
Arkadiy Lyaskovskiy - Artyom Shchurov

Stage Director
Roman Zhukov

Production Designer
Vyacheslav Luy-Ko

Costume Designer
Vyacheslav Luy-Ko

Lighting Designer
Aleksey Zlobin

Video Artist
Vladislav Belyaev

Musical Design
Aleksandr Kostromykin