The Messenger's Error

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Movie
German title The Messenger's Error
Original title Ошибка резидента
Country of production USSR
original language Russian
Publishing year 1968
length 142 minutes
Rod
Director Beniamin Dorman
script Oleg Schmeljow, Vladimir Wostokow
production Central film studio for children's and youth films "Maxim Gorki"
camera Michail Geuchberg
cut W. Pogrebinski
occupation

The Ambassador's Error (Russian Ошибка резидента, literally: The Resident's Error) is a two-part Soviet film that was shot in 1968 by Beniamin Dorman at the Central Gorky Film Studio for Children and Youth Films . It is the first film in a tetralogy about the spy Mikhail Tuliev. The title of the first part is “Under old legend”, the name of the second part “The return of Bekas”.

action

The agent thriller tells the fate of the top spy Tuljew, the son of a noble Russian emigrant. The action takes place in the first half of the sixties. Tuljew comes "under old legend ", i. H. Under the guise of a camouflage identity that was already put on during the cooperation with the German secret service in World War II, to the USSR to set up a base, activate old agents and recruit new ones. The term resident from the film title refers to this activity . Tuljev's father already worked as a spy for the West; in exile he suffers greatly from being separated from his Russian homeland.

The counter-espionage of the USSR (the KGB ) finds Tuljew, who works under the cover name "Nadezhda" (Russian hope), through a mysterious anonymous letter from abroad. Unnoticed by Tuliev, the agent Pawel Sinitsyn, who pretends to be a clever petty criminal Bekas (Russian snipe), is set on him. Tuljew settles under the name of Michail Sarokow with the German spy Dembowitsch, who has been established since the war, and looks for a job as a taxi driver. He makes the acquaintance of the dispatcher Maria, and a relationship develops between them.

After Tuljew runs into Bekas by chance in the city (they have met before on a train ride, and Tuljew knows that Bekas is a wanted police thief), he instructs Dembowitsch to recruit him. He himself avoids dealing with Bekas further. The latter begins to carry out Tuliev's instructions, which he receives from Dembowitsch.

A policeman from the local police station comes to Sarokov with supposedly good news - his younger sister, with whom he lost contact during the war, was allegedly found in Leningrad . In truth, of course, it is the sister of the real Sarokov, who was eliminated by the German secret service and whose identity Tuljew has assumed. For Tuljew there is only one way to avoid a fiasco: the sister has to go. Dembovich sends a killer to her, but he is immediately arrested in Leningrad. The counterintelligence, however, keeps appearances and ensures that Sarokov is officially informed of the death of his sister.

The following intelligence operation, organized by Tullev, is under the full control of the KGB . The aim is to smuggle soil and water samples from the vicinity of a presumed nuclear weapon production facility into the West. All the information the West receives has been prepared by the Soviet counterintelligence. When the material was transported across the sea border of the USSR, there was an exchange of fire with the coast guard, and Bekas was forced to go to the west with him in order not to fall into the hands of the alleged enemy.

Dembowitsch, who has been suffering from depression for some time, gets a remorse and confesses to the KGB in a letter his espionage activities and also informs him about the activities of Tulliev. He then commits suicide. Tuljew is then forced to flee. He manages to escape surveillance and cover his tracks. Maria is now expecting a child from Tuljew, who gave her a substantial sum to support him before he fled.

In the headquarters of the Western secret service, Bekas is subjected to sophisticated tests and interrogations, which he mastered satisfactorily. Convinced that they really have a fugitive recidivist thief in front of them, Tuljev's clients decide - personal names and mother tongue clearly indicate the German secret service - to send Bekas to the agent school and smuggle them back to the USSR after a year. He is subordinate to a certain Stanislav Kurnakov. Kurnakow - d. H. Tuljew, has since changed identity, place of residence, profession and appearance. In addition to new instructions and equipment, Bekas Tuljew also brings news of his father's death. Tuljew is shocked, and he and Bekas come closer to each other in an open conversation.

Bekas finally manages to find the hiding place in which Tuljew keeps his cipher tables for encrypted communication with the western secret service center. His superior, General Sergeyev, decides to arrest Tuliev immediately. The arrest takes place quickly and without attention in a deserted place so that the West does not find out about it. Bekas is assigned the task of maintaining contact with the western clients as the agent leader, and thus takes Tuljew's place from now on.

Songs in the movie

  • Bekas sings the song "I in the Spring Forest (Я в весеннем лесу)" by the dramaturge and screenwriter Yevgeny Arganowitsch .
  • A group of young people sing the song "Our Neighbor (Наш сосед)" by Boris Potjomkin on the street.
  • In the episode at the seaside resort, Bekas sings the song "The educated are literally moving on the skin (Образованные просто одолели)" on the guitar.
  • Bekas sings the song “But it's so peaceful in the cemetery” by M. Noschkin in Dembovich's lover's apartment and quotes the prison song “ In der Tundra ” (Russian: “По тундре”).
  • Bekas also quotes stanzas from the student song: "You go with the reindeer ... (Ты уедешь к северным оленям ...)".

useful information

  • The anonymous letter writer at the beginning of the film gives the coordinates of the border crossing from "Nadezhda" into the USSR as 40 ° 53 'N, 47 ° 58' E. This position is about two kilometers from the village of Khazra in Qusar Raion in Azerbaijan .
  • The state on whose behalf Tuljew operates is not directly named. But all foreigners who appear in the film in connection with the western secret service talk to each other in German. The encrypted message for "Nadezhda", which the speaker transmits in the form of two-digit numbers by radio, is also in German.
  • The ship on which Bekas translates into the USSR carries the flag of the FRG, sails under the name "Hannover" and is registered in Cologne.
  • The film has no overture and no background music.

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