Letter Never Sent (1960) on Netflix
Three geologists, Tanya, Andrei and Konstantin Sabinin, and their guide Sergei fly into central Siberia's boreal forest to hunt for diamonds. A forest fire traps them in the woods.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.8/104,959 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Tanya, Andrei and Konstantin Sabinin join the guide Sergei on a flight into central Siberia's boreal forest, where they are to search for diamonds. On the flight Konstantin begins a letter to his wife about the expedition. Sergei is jealous of Andrei, the object of Tanya's affection, and punches him during a bird hunt. Panning the rivers turns up nothing, so the group digs at a mountainside with pickaxes until they are exhausted, and then Tanya spots diamonds in the earth. Andrei radios the base camp at Petrov with the news. Packing their supplies into a canoe for the return, they wake in the night to a forest fire that traps them in the woods.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Letter Never Sent (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Letter Never Sent was shot in icy rivers among fires, with burning trees falling in front of the cast and crew; while filming a raft scene on the Yenisei river, Innokenty Smoktunovsky was concussed by the rocky water, and Urusevsky and Kalatozov kept filming for several more minutes after he raised his hand to signal he was unwell.
- Mikhail Kalatozov's film was withdrawn from the 1960 Cannes Film Festival just before its screening on 17 May; Soviet representatives said it was "unfinished", though Kalatozov in fact wanted to re-shoot some sequences before its premiere in the USSR.
