As German forces advanced further into the Soviet Union, a small group was assembled with the mission of infiltrating enemy territory to discover the locations of their fuel depots and where they were offloading tanks and other military supplies. The intelligence they had suggested that if this team failed, a massive invasion would begin, one for which they were unprepared. This assignment fell to the young soldier Travkin (played by Igor Petrenko) and his small group of men, who then ventured into dangerous ground. Initially, it seems like another familiar story—a small force facing impossible odds, reminiscent of "Dirty Dozen"—but this film offers a more nuanced portrayal. It effectively illustrates how incredibly young and inexperienced these men were, forced to rely on their intelligence and resourcefulness just to survive in such brutal conditions. Most were barely out of their teens and had to come to terms with the constant presence of death and the disturbing reality of taking lives, experiences that proved deeply unsettling for them. The performances by actors like Aleksey Panin and Artyom Semakin powerfully convey the harshness of their surroundings and the unpredictable nature of war. Those they meet in perilous situations are similarly young, inexperienced, and equally frightened. While it’s undeniably a piece of propaganda—as were many WWII films made by filmmakers in other countries—it avoids the overly enthusiastic tone often found in those movies. Instead, it attempts to depict both the weaknesses and strengths of these young men, while also including some lighter moments and showing how they gradually develop into a cohesive unit after an expectedly difficult beginning. The film’s production values are fairly conventional, but there's a certain vitality that keeps things moving forward, and the cast successfully captures the sense of terrified closeness among them.

Source on TMDB