Overview
Tzadik, known as The Righteous in English, is a 2023 Russian World War II film directed by Sergei Ursuliak. The historical drama film is based on the real story of the Soviet partisan officer the Avenger detachment, Nikolai Kiselev (played by Aleksandr Yatsenko), who saved over 200 Jews from the Nazis in World War II.
This film was theatrically released on February 16, 2023.
Plot
The film takes place in 1942, during the Great Patriotic War (World War II). The film is based on real events that took place during the Second World War between August and October 1942, when Russian soldier and Soviet partisan officer Nikolai Kiselev rescued 2018 Jews from the Holocaust. The story begins when Kiselev receives the order to evacuate over two hundred Jews, including old men, women and children, from Belorussian-occupied territories behind the front lines, after Hitler had declared Belarus a Jew-free (judenfrei) territory. The emaciated people, tormented by hunger and fear, who had lost their relatives and had almost lost their minds from the horror they experienced, would have to walk hundreds of kilometres through the forest paths to recover the faith and hope of a better world.
Cast
Aleksandr Yatsenko as Captain Nikolay Kiselyov (soldier), Red Army officer, commander of a partisan detachment (Nikolai Kiselev in English)
Sergei Makovetsky as Ruvim Yankel
Fyodor Dobronravov as Voronyansky, commander of the partisan detachment «People's Avengers»
Yevgeny Tkachuk as Nikishin «Ferz» («Queen» in English)
Doval'e Glickman as Moshe Tal
Mark Eidelstein as Moshe Tal in his youth
Yuliya Vetruk as Lyubov "Lyuba" (Luba in English)
Lyubov Konstantinova as Anna "Anya" Sirotina
Maria Zolotukhina as Tova Lipnitskaya
Ronald Pelin as Yoni Hirschmann
Konstantin Khabensky as Avigdor
Chulpan Khamatova as Rita
Tom Appelbaum as Yossi
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).