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The Cold Summer of 1953

Original title: Kholodnoe leto pyatdesyat tretego
1988
Directed by Aleksandr Proshkin · Russia / USSR · Soviet Poetic Cinema
ActionCrimeDrama

Where to watch in the United States: Free: Darkroom. Streaming data from JustWatch via TMDB; availability changes.

Cast

Valeriy Priyomykhov Anatoliy Papanov Viktor Stepanov Nina Usatova Zoya Buryak Yuriy Kuznetsov

Credits

Written by: Edgar Dubrovsky

Plot

In 1953, the year Stalin died, many prisoners (some political, but mostly common criminals) were released from the Soviet Gulags.

Sinekatalog’s take

As amnesty frees many prisoners after Stalin's death, a remote village is terrorized by escaped criminals. The Soviet drama is tense and rugged, treating violence with moral seriousness. A strong, grim film for fans of historical crime stories.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

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Awards

Ratings

IMDb: 7.8 / 10 (2,958 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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