Critics concur that the film's best performances are those of Valentin Gaft, Yevgeny Mironov and Yelena Yakovleva.

Yevgeny Mironov in this role is life itself – passionate, young, irresistible.

Yevgeny Mironov, Geneva's Star of Tomorrow and Moscow's most promising young talent, is a surprising choice for Liuetenant Poletayev. Hardly a fighting man, not much of a front-line officer. No height to him, no bearing, no looks to speak of. Our self-conscious next-door neighbor. What could the Colonel's lovely mistress possibly see in this guy?.. But the sense of a link between eras, of history as a continuum, a yearning for beauty that is of today, not yesterday – that is his, Mironov's, unique contribution to the film.


[Translated by Vlada Chernomordik for the Yevgeny Mironov Official Website]