The one character whose story you believe without reservation and whose tragic death you find yourself weeping over is Yevgeny Mironov's Iziumov, the commander of the penal battalion. That spectacular actor, dead-on and real in every shot, displays an astonishing palette of emotional shades: he makes you laugh and he makes you sick, but in the end he makes you feel a deep respect and a great sense of loss.
... A breathtaking, finespun screen existence.
Mariya Bezrook
Tribuna, 2010
Yevgeny Mironov's work here is superlative.
... To me, he is an extraordinary actor, the most complex and sensitive in our cinema today.
... One of his brilliant performances, a favorite of mine, is in [another war film,]
August of '44.
... What he plays here is
... a whole different character, and, in my judgment, no less spectacular.
Shod Mulladjanov
Courtesy of echo.msk.ru, 2010
A reward awaits the patient viewer when Yevgeny Mironov appears as the first lieutenant in charge of the penal battalion.
... You get 15 minutes of sheer bliss watching him live out his onscreen destiny.
Anna Fyodorova
Courtesy of pravmir.ru, 2010
The unhinged lieutenant trying to conceal his terror and confusion is a first-rate job by Yevgeny Mironov.
Tatiana Moskvina
Argumenty nedeli, 2010
A rare ray of light pierces the murk, [as with] the appearance of Yevgeny Mironov.
Kseniya Rozhdestvenskaya
Russkii Newsweek, 2010
A few truly great moments are to be found here
..., [such as] Yevgeny Mironov's
... monologue.
... Mironov appears midfilm – at last, a real-life human being.
Leonid Marantidi
Courtesy of kino-teatr.ru, 2010
Oleg Menshikov and Yevgeny Mironov seem to be the only members of the cast that forgo the grandioso style imposed by the director in favor of remaining lifelike.
Kseniya Larina
Courtesy of echo.msk.ru, 2010
The work of Mironov and Makovetzky stands out among the performances.
Anastasia Lyakh
Courtesy of kino.oboz.ua, 2010
The exception [here] is the work of Yevgeny Mironov. His penal-battalion commander is vivid and precise.
Boris Podguyny
Courtesy of culturavrn.ru, 2010
Yevgeny Mironov is terrific as a Red officer who finally sees the light – one of the film's unquestioned successes.
Nataliya Bobrova
Vechernyaya Moskva, 2010
Somewhat more developed is the stock character played by Yevgeny Mironov, but this is only due to the God-given talent of an actor who could make a wax effigy come to life.
Valery Kichin
Courtesy of valery-kichin.livejournal.com, 2010
What Zhenya Mironov does here is, in my honest opinion, nothing short of a heroic feat. To exist so genuinely in such thoroughly phony circumstances!
Kseniya Larina
Courtesy of echo.msk.ru, 2010
One of the best episodes here,
... as every critic has noted, is
... the scene with the Kremlin cadets,
... a fragment rescued by Mironov's sublime authenticity.
Dmitry Bykov
Novaya gazeta, 2010
For me personally, the film began 1 1/2 hours after the lights went down, with the appearance of Yevgeny Mironov. And until his character died, I swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
Marina Timasheva
Courtesy of svobodanews.ru, 2010
A brilliantly conceived character, acted out in an unprecedented key of tragic buffoonery by Yevgeny Mironov.
Pyotr Shepotinnik
Courtesy of openspace.ru, 2010
An incandescent performance by Yevgeny Mironov.
Aleksandr Strelkov
Vedomosti, 2010
The modest storyline involving Yevgeny Mironov
... stands alone in
Burnt ... as a self-contained episode of intrinsic value, untouched by the [general] phoniness. Mironov plays the penal commander, and his superb acting is less like an act than an abandoned immersion in the fever of war.
... He is a sliver of front-line existence which cannot be simulated mindlessly, or the falsity would show right through.
... In his barked orders and hysterical yelling I heard the true voice of war.
... A big thanks to a big artist.
Oleg Vergelis
Zerkalo nedeli, 2010
The cadet sequence, heightened by the genius performance of Yevgeny Mironov, is the best thing in the film.
Dmitry Dabb
Vzglyad, 2010
[Translated by Vlada Chernomordik for the Yevgeny Mironov Official Website]
