Original subtitles

To those who, in any area of human enterprise,

be it the settlement of wild forsaken lands

or a daring dash into space,

follow the difficult route of the pioneers,

to the Soviet people this film is dedicated.

A LETTER NEVER SENT

Written by G. Koltunov, V. Osipov, V. Rozov

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov

Photographed by Sergey Urusevsky

Music by N. Kryukov

Starring

Innokenty Smoktunovsky Tatiana Samoilova

Vasily Livanov Yevgeny Urbansky

Distribution year

Vera, my love, I forgot to send you the letter.

Blame it on the insane spring flooding of the Siberian rivers.

We landed practically in the water.

In the confusion, I missed the chance,

and then the plane was gone.

I began this letter when still on the plane.

I remembered our parting.

And I remembered how we sat down in the hallway,

and I saw love and anxiety in your eyes.

Leaving you always makes me sad.

But some unstoppable force drives me again and again.

I am even glad that I didn't send the letter.

Now at every rest stop I will write to you

about everything that fills our nomadic days

in the taiga.

Sergey is again our guide.

And the geologists are very young this time.

He and she. They must be in love,

although they take pains to hide it.

But I can see it.

Some day I will talk you into going with us.

Because if you were near, my happiness

would have been complete.

Here, between two rivers, we'll begin our work.

The first step is the hardest.

Come sit here.

I prefer the saying, all's well that ends well.

Let's drink to making a start.

Making a start.

Kostya... Shall we finish it?

Guys... the rest we'll drink when we find the diamonds.

- Got it? - To celebrate.

Or to mourn, if we don't find them.

Any reason for drinking is a good reason.

Andrey, get Moscow for a few minutes.

Cut it out.

Base will be calling in a moment.

Kostya! Base here.

Octahedron here. Let me.

This is Sabinin. We have reached search area.

Optimistic and full of hopes.

We're starting the search. Over.

Look what an interesting sample.

Andrey.

Do you have a feeling like dreams could come true?

Meaning?

In college, we used to dream of diamonds,

Arizona rubies, ilmenites...

This is my 10th diamond expedition.

They don't exist. A mirage.

The scientists maintain that the Mid-Siberian plateau

is geologically very similar to the South African plateau.

And that's where the richest diamond deposits are.

Give your scientists mosquito nets

and send them into the bogs.

That would put a stop to their theories.

What is it, Sergey Stepanovich?

Why the silence?

A mirage, Tatiana Nikolayevna.

- You think it's all so easy? - No, why?

Nature guards its secrets rather jealously,

and only perseverance can wrench them from her grasp.

And bravery, if you like.

But we'll search for them, and search, and search again...

Hiding?

No luck. - That may change.

Great discoveries demand great patience.

- What if we do find the diamonds? - An industrial revolution.

How marvellous. We'll find them

and we'll be happy for the rest of our lives.

You know, Tanya,

I dislike the noise of the big cities.

Everybody running, in a hurry.

What if one could live here, always?

No. I don't want to.

I don't want to, I don't want to...

I love the mad and exuberant Moscow,

guests, noise, dancing...

Dancing, dancing, dancing.

Do you love ME?

- I love Geology College, Lenin Hills... - No, ME?

- The mad and exuberant Moscow... - What about me?

- Our house, the streets... Granny and ice-cream!

"Every time I promise myself to tell you,

and every time I go numb inside from fear.

- Don't, Andrey. - "You love ano..."

Sergey Stepanovich wrote this.

He's in love with somebody, imagine that! - Don't.

- Guys. Is my mapcase here? - Right here.

Take it. - Thanks. - And you lost this, too.

- Not me. - Wasn't it you who wrote this?

- I wrote nothing.

- I thought I knew your hand. - You don't, yet.

I don't get it why you are so annoyed.

I don't want you to get it.

Embarrassing.

You know, Sergey, you should get married.

You're getting misanthropic.

And what have I seen in life? The war. The forest.

Walking the taiga, looking for other men's treasures.

You're silly.

I know.

So, love is rarer than diamonds?

Here's another schlich.

Sergey Stepanovich...

Somebody promised to take me hunting.

Well then.

Terrific!

Did you read the note?

- Yes. - Figured it out?

I think so.

What do you say?

- Me? It's your business. - But still.

- You'll get angry again. - No, let's talk.

- Like men? - Like men.

- You love a girl who loves another. And he loves her.

Morally that's wrong.

- I don't give a damn about your morals that come from books.

I care about my feelings. - That's an egoist talking.

- So I'm an egoist.

- That's for sure.

What are YOU going to do?

Not give up. I waited all my life for this feeling.

I understand. But that's how man is different

from animal: he can suppress the wrong feelings.

A fish. A cold large-headed fish.

Why does Tatiana love such a mosquito?

This is not the way to behave.

It was you who insisted on having this conversation.

You asked me questions. Maybe I talked too much.

I don't know the girl you wrote to.

But if you love her, don't show her this side of you.

Wait!

Did you read the note?

I told you. Yes. Don't treat me like an idiot.

Tanya! Grab the trophy.

My heart was aching, like I was afraid.

No reason for that. We had a great hunt

and talked a lot.

What did you talk about?

Men's stuff.

You know, Sergey Stepanovich is a very complex man.

Can you take this?

- Where's Sabinin? - Went off somewhere, looking gloomy.

- Why? - All this searching.

Well?

Nothing remotely like it.

Strange. Summer's over, and we got nowhere.

Strange.

Maybe there are no diamonds in Siberia.

- You got samples from the flood-lands? - Yes.

- And here? - I did.

And at the source of Nameless Brook?

- Nothing there. - Nothing.

- Strange. - What's strange?

No expedition ever found anything. We're not alone.

Next year we'll go somewhere else.

Konstantin Fedorovich.

Don't you think we should look for the diamond pipe elsewhere?

You know the geophysicists found an anomaly here.

- Yes, we know. - So... - But they could be wrong.

True, but not a consolation.

Maybe the results from the old searches were pure chance.

If science, intellect and instinct

are nothing but chance, what are we doing here?

The pipe is somewhere near.

How many times I heard this. You're an obsessed man.

How else can you do anything in this short life?

Wait.

So what? We're calling for the plane?

Going back?

Why no answer?

Vera, my love.

Autumn is here.

We're straining all our might

to wrench out the secret hidden in this earth.

We are resolutely on the offensive.

So that's it.

They won't send me here a 4th time.

Nobody. Ever again.

Now it will be quiet here for a long time.

Five years? Ten?

A hundred? A thousand?

I am just unlucky. And I wore out the others.

Maybe Sergey is right, and there's nothing here.

No!

It's proved in theory.

And I feel it.

Instinct doesn't lie.

Why doesn't it? It does, very often.

Or maybe never?

What's instinct? It means feeling but not knowing.

But I both know and feel.

Sergey Stepanovich.

You're tired.

Tanya, darling, what is it?

Andrey, look.

- What's happened? - Look.

Look.

- Well? - Wait.

Andrey! Hurray!

We found them!

Hurray!

The great and courageous discoverers of Siberian diamonds.

Before an obelisk is erected in our honour

of Ural gems... - In Starokonyushenny, in Moscow.

- In Kalinin Street!

- No, Moscow Avenue in Leningrad.

- In Sverdlovsk, by the Ural Restaurant.

And it will say in gold letters,

"To those who delivered Fatherland from foreign diamond dependence."

"Without them modern industry would have been impossible,

and space flights would have been postponed to the next century."

Hurray!

My dears, I want to drink our precious brandy...

Nice to hear some sober words.

To our return.

To our return.

Andrey, let's get Moscow.

Everything ready!

Spot markers in place, the pipe map done, I think.

A city will be here. Diamond City.

- Here. - Yes.

- Terrific.

Konstantin Fedorovich.

You're sitting by the fire and for the first time

not writing to your wife. Amazing.

Yes. Now I will myself give her a letter of

almost a thousand pages.

We are led by good fortune.

Does it mean that you, Andrey and I

have not lived in vain already?

Certainly.

Good for us!

Good, good, good for us.

- I am grateful to you. - For what?

The feelings. Even if unreciprocated.

Tomorrow at dawn to the boats.

Then the plane.

Farewell.

Vera, Vera.

What a terrible disaster.

The nature is against us.

Get your things quick.

- Get this in the boat. - Mind the radio!

- The instruments!

- To the boats, quick.

- We have supplies there. - And the samples.

- I'll catch up.

Damn. The supply boat's been carried away. Come!

My foot!

- We can't go there! - We'll starve,

and lose the samples.

Come back!

Sergey Stepanovich, turn back!

I've got it, I've got the boat!

Grab the stuff!

Get out of the fire!

Tanya, this is for you!

Sergey!

We have to get out of the fire.

How stupid, a falling tree...

- Stop it. - I can't believe it.

Let's go.

- Where are we? - Keep cool.

We have to report Sergey's death.

Andrey. Get the base.

- The base. - I'm getting it.

Fatherland, Octahedron here.

Why are you silent, over.

- What's the matter with them? - Are they deaf?

Get the Petrov party.

Yenisei, this is Octahedron.

Calling the Petrov party, over.

Why are they not answering?

Andrey. What is this?

Moscow? - Irkutsk.

Turn it off.

In an hour they should call us.

Come. Tanya.

Fatherland, Octahedron calling.

This is base.

Your news of the Soviet diamonds discovery was sent to Moscow.

Thank God, they've woken up.

This is Octahedron. Receiving you loud and clear.

Are you receiving? Over.

We congatulate you with all our hearts.

You have raised yet higher the glorious banner

of the Soviet geologists.

- They'll hear us. - This is Octahedron.

Receiving you loud and clear.

Listen carefully.

Making a forced detour around fire area.

Tell them not to worry.

Over to you.

- And with you, we rejoice... - They're not receiving.

...at this extremely important discovery.

We realize what pride and joy...

- What's with the radio? - I think it's working.

- Why don't they receive? - I don't get it.

We await your return with impatience. Each of us wants

to embrace the lucky team.

- Damn.

The geologists are even now getting ready to welcome you back.

Fatherland, this is Octahedron.

Saving the scientific samples from forest fire,

Sergey Voronov died heroically. Over.

Dear friends. A telegram of congratulations

has just been received from Moscow.

- They are not receiving. - I tell you it's the radio.

Cancel the reception, try to raise them from here.

This is Octahedron. The pipe map is with us.

We shall take it out of the fire area. Over.

Octahedron, why are you not responding?

Nothing. The radio's busted.

Get back!

We have to get to the big river.

And raft downstream. - Right.

Never mind. We've been in tough scrapes before.

I think the diamond field we've found

is not the only one in Siberia.

Why don't we come back next year?

And search northwards... even eastwards...

This is Fatherland calling Octahedron.

We couldn't raise you for several days.

We assume your radio is faulty.

Listen carefully.

Search parties are looking for you.

We will call you every 6 hours.

We'll make war on you yet, Mother Nature.

Search parties are looking for you.

We will call you every 6 hours.

To all search parties.

The Sabinin party is in distress.

They couldn't be raised on radio for several days.

As soon as they are spotted, report to base immediately.

Octahedron, special planes and helicopters

have been despatched to look for you.

Try to reach landing base #3.

Sergey Stepanovich.

You know the spot and can lead the party to it.

We'll try raising you every 3 hours.

Tanya.

When we're back in Moscow, no one will believe this.

Yes.

Quiet!

A plane!

A helicopter!

We're saved! They found us!

We're here!

Where are you going! We're here!

Come back!

They'll never find us in this smoke.

Andrey.

Come on up. It's alright.

We're dumping the radio. - Never.

We can't transmit. We'll carry only the essentials.

Well, let's go.

I'll manage.

Comrade Sabinin.

To the NW of the river Khatenakh forest fires are raging.

The fire front is close to 1000km.

We assume that you have gone off course.

The search area has been widened.

Planes have been sent from

Yakutsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk.

The land parties have been strengthened.

All radio stations are looking for your signal.

I repeat: all radio stations

are looking for your signal.

And we are positive that you will soon be spotted.

Courage, dear comrades.

We will call you every 2 hours.

Comrades.

Lean on me.

Vera, my love.

We keep walking and walking.

I can write no longer.

Andrey is getting weaker every day.

What is he thinking of? I don't know.

It probably torments him that we have to carry him.

But I know this is harder for him than for us.

- Is it too heavy, Tanya? - I just stumbled.

Tanya. Konstantin Fedorovich.

It's a matter of simple arithmetics.

Leave me. Please, I beg you.

Cut it out. What kind of talk is that.

Andrey. I don't recognize you.

Talking nonsense.

Lie down. Go on.

Konstantin Fedorovich.

What is it, Andrey?

Can you see there, a flower?

Pick it for me, please.

Please.

Tanya.

Today is your birthday.

Happy birthday. - Happy birthday.

Konstantin Fedorovich.

You know, I love Tanya very much.

We met in college.

She was wearing a light blue dress

with short sleeves. Rememeber?

And the moment I saw her, right away,

for the rest of my life...

For the rest of my life.

Tanya fills my life.

She...

She is joy.

How grateful I am to you, my love...

my love...

He's tired. Asleep.

I beg you, save him!

Save him, Konstantin Fedorovich.

You must... somehow... by a miracle, save him.

You must.

You blame me, Tanya?

What?

How can I?

It's not for yourself that you stayed here.

Go to sleep, too.

"I must do this. It's simple arithmetics.

Better if one dies than three.

Don't look for me, don't waste your strength.

Andrey.

And still we found the diamonds. Hurray."

He's up.

Andrey!

Where are you?

Why aren't you answering?!

You have no right!

Andrey! Where are you?

Answer! You have no right!

Why are you silent? It's wrong!

I beg you! Come back!

We'll carry you to the river, it's no weight at all!

You mustn't, you have no right!

I love you!

Love you!

You're wrong!

Andrey!

A plane!

Fire, quick!

What have you done! The last one.

Sleep, Tanya. Sleep.

- Why aren't you sleeping? - I'm thinking.

Don't. Thoughts tire you out.

A living man cannot help thinking.

And not all thoughts are tiring.

Some gave strength to people at the time of the worst ordeal.

I am thinking of Andrey.

- Andrey? - Yes.

- He was wrong? - It's not for us to judge him.

Be that as it may, he acted heroically,

and made it our duty to save the map.

- We will. We certainly will.

In the future, you'll often have to keep your oaths.

- Oaths?

- Didn't you take a pioneer's oath as a child?

All was so solemn and important.

"I, a young pioneer of the Soviet Union,

in front of my comrades

do solemnly swear..."

Sometimes a man has no occasion to remember the words

in the whole of his life.

There's just no call for it.

But sometimes... Tanya...

We have no food and we're dead tired.

But we must say no to weakness.

No to faintheartedness. No to despair.

And yes to our boundless faith. Yes!

Yes!

Yes.

There, now sleep.

And dream of a wide river...

a raft... and us rushing to where people are.

Sleep.

Winter. Never mind.

The Siberian rivers are fast. They don't freeze easily.

Yes. Let's go, Tanya.

Tanya.

Why don't you answer?

Tanya!

The river!

Vera, my beloved Vera.

My life does not belong to me.

I must save the map. I cannot die.

I must live, for too much has been lost.

Too much has been found.

Hey, people!

Comrades, look here!

Take the map!

Stop me, or I'll float to the ocean.

Why can't they hear me?

You cry in a whisper, you have no strength to cry.

I must give them the map.

Keep calm.

It's only you who sees them. They're not here.

They'll come when they find your map.

They'll build Diamond City.

All will be like you dreamed of: Andrey, Tanya, Sergey.