They fought for their Motherland (1975)

Like his debut feature, "Destiny Of A Man", director Sergei Bondarchuk's "They Fought For Their Motherland" is a screen adaptation of Nobel Prize winning author Mikhail Sholokov's novel.
July 1942. The army is retreating. A group of exhausted soldiers, all that’s left of their regiment, are defending a plot of land. At times they feel like there is no war. Wide tank tracks on the road, and all around are drooping, wilted grasses, dimly glistening salt marshes and a bluish flickering haze over distant mounds…
In that absurd clash between the warmly breathing earth and the inhuman war machine lies a powerful Biblical generalization, the metaphor of confrontation of eternal life and dark, evil forces. The loss of Soviet life in the campaign was legion but the film concentrates on the remnants of one shattered regiment and its individual soldiers' thoughts and fears in the face of impending annihilation, not only of themselves but Mother Russia too.
Awards:
* Prize of the Union of the Anti-Fascist Fighters of Czechoslovakia at the 20th IFF in Karlovy Vary, 1976
* Award for Best Director to S. Bondarchuk and Award for Best Performance of 27 male roles of soldiers at the 14th IFF in Panama, 1976
* The Vassiliev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR to director S. Bondarchuk and cinematographer V. Yusov, 1977
* Leninist Komsomol Prize to composer V. Ovchinnikov, 1977