Convoy 48 The War Train (2019) on Netflix
Masha Yablochkina, a Leningrad schoolgirl, enrolls in railway courses after the blockade winter of 1941-1942. She is sent to the 48th locomotive column, which hauls most of Leningrad's cargo.
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- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb5.6/10462 votes
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Plot summary
The blockade winter of 1941-1942 is over, and Masha Yablochkina, a schoolgirl in Leningrad, signs up for the railway courses, hoping to stay alive and regain her strength. From there she is sent to build the Shlisselburg highway, the road that is meant to connect the city with the mainland, and German artillery keeps that road in direct sight. The work takes her into the 48th locomotive column, part of the special reserve of the NKPS. That column must deliver 75 percent of all the cargo and military equipment that Leningrad receives, and its crews do the work at deadly risk.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Convoy 48 The War Train (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While showing footage to the writer Daniil Granin, the filmmakers heard that matches were a scarce commodity in besieged Leningrad and lighters more common, so they shot extra pavilion scenes and had the props staff find period lighters.
- The screenplay was written by Dmitry Karalis, whose parents survived the siege of Leningrad and whose father drove trains through the 'corridor' and served as a political instructor in the 48th column, the special unit that operated the line.
- A 48th locomotive column of special reserve was created to serve the line; drivers were so scarce they were tracked down at the front and flown into the besieged city, while Leningrad schoolgirls with braids and Komsomol badges on their padded jackets became stokers and switchwomen.
- The railwaymen themselves nicknamed the route the 'corridor of death', and working on it was more dangerous than fighting at the front; the girls setting out on a run did not know whether they would come back alive.
- The real Shlisselburg line the film shows — 33 kilometres along the left bank of the Neva and the southern shore of Lake Ladoga between Shlisselburg and Polyany, with two intermediate stations — was laid in just 17 days.
