May 9 marks the debut of Katyusha on Rossiya, a multi-part military drama directed by Ilya Kazakov. The project gathers a strong ensemble headlined by Karina Razumovskaya, Pavel Kharlanchuk, Ekaterina Olkina, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Anna Balobanova, and a cadre of other notable performers who contribute depth and texture to the narrative. The series follows the arc of Yegor Petrov, a wounded fighter whose memory fragments after a mission with a reconnaissance unit. Returning home, he unexpectedly finds himself at the helm of an engineering and plumbing company, a unit whose daily life entwines the loyalty of soldiers with the bond they share with their canine partners and their handlers. Petrov must navigate the delicate task of re-establishing trust with the troops while quietly uncovering the truth of his own past and his uncertain place within a community built on mutual risk and shared hardship, a journey that drives the emotional core of the drama and invites viewers to reconsider what memory, duty, and belonging really mean in the fog of war.
Director Kazakov places a premium on a living, breathing on-set atmosphere that echoes the gravity of the script. He recalls the daily rhythm of production beginning with the cast and crew quoting passages from Konstantin Simonov’s wartime writings, including One Hundred Days of War and The Living and the Dead, selecting verses that resonate with the mood of each scene. This deliberate ritual serves not only as a reminder of history but also as a practical tool to anchor performances in the right emotional register, keeping the film’s emotional center vibrant from dawn to dusk. The approach helps the crew and cast inhabit the era more fully, lending authenticity to the portrayals of camaraderie, fear, resolve, and the small, human moments that stitch the larger wartime tapestry together. Kazakov’s method demonstrates how literature can act as a living companion on set, guiding tone and cadence while ensuring the characters remain anchored to the realities of their time.
Production choices reflect an ambition to mirror scale and realism while offering a visual voyage through a mosaic of landscapes. Filming unfolded around Minsk to capture the domestic texture of life behind the lines, with additional sequences filmed in Yalta and St. Petersburg to broaden the environmental palette and evoke the wider theaters of operation that the characters inhabit. The journey extended to Sosnovka Park, Peterhof, and Kronstadt, each site contributing distinct atmospheres—from intimate, everyday conservations among soldiers to sweeping vistas that convey the vastness of the national struggle. This diverse geography enriches the storytelling, allowing the series to traverse both the intimate and the epic, and to suggest a world where danger and hope coexist. The collective effort of cast, crew, and location teams results in a vividly textured portrayal of a unit forged under pressure, its bonds tested and tempered by time, with Petrov’s evolving purpose serving as a thread that binds the audience to the fate of the ensemble across Russia and beyond. The premiere on Rossiya Television at 22:10 invites viewers to witness a narrative about memory, duty, and steadfast friendship told through contemporary Russian television’s lens, while offering a cinematic experience that blends historical resonance with modern storytelling sensibilities and a shared understanding of what it takes to endure together under pressure in difficult times.