CITIES AND YEARS

In the Schwabing bohemia, young Russian author Andrej Starcov is good friends with futuristic painter Kurt Wahn. When World War 1 breaks out, he gets into a dangerous situation when patriotic fanatics want to lynch him. Lieutenant von Schönau, an art lover and Kurt Wahn’s patron, rescues him at the last minute. During his internment Andrej Starcov falls in love with Marie Urbach, without the slightest idea that she is his saviour’s bride. After the peace agreement, Andrej returns from Brest-Litowsk to Russia with the promise to send for her soon. In a prisoner of war-camp, he is reunited with Kurt Wahn who has joined the Bolshevics in the meantime. During a battle he takes von Schönau, fighting on the side of the counter-revolution, as a prisoner. Andrej helps the lieutenant escape so he can send a letter to Marie. Kurt learns about this and shoots his old friend Andrej as a “traitor of the revolution“. The fifth reel of this film from 1930 is lost. In 1974, Aleksandr Zarchi shot another film adaption of the novel of the same name by Konstantin Fedin from the year 1924.