# Burnt by the Sun (Утомлённые солнцем)
**Burnt by the Sun** (Утомлённые солнцем) is a 1994 Russian-French drama film directed by [Nikita Mikhalkov](https://www.edgepedia.org/nikita-mikhalkov), set on a single summer day in 1936 at the country dacha of a [Red Army](https://www.edgepedia.org/red-army) commander who is arrested during Stalin's Great Purge. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the [67th Academy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/67th-academy-awards) and shared the Grand Jury Prize at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1995) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111579/awards/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Nikita Mikhalkov, co-writer Rustam Ibragimbekov; Mikhalkov also produced and starred[3](https://cultin.ru/films-utomljonnye-solncem) |
| Setting | A long summer day in 1936 at the Moscow-region dacha of division commander Sergei Kotov[4](https://www.sonyclassics.com/burntbysun/burntbysun.html) |
| Principal cast | Oleg Menshikov, Ingeborga Dapkounaite, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Mikhalkov's daughter Nadia Mikhalkov as six-year-old Nadia[4](https://www.sonyclassics.com/burntbysun/burntbysun.html) |
| Major awards | Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (1995); Grand Jury Prize and Ecumenical Jury Prize at Cannes 1994, the Jury Prize tied with Zhang Yimou's *To Live*[1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1995) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111579/awards/) |
| Budget and box office | Budget $2,800,000; United States gross $2,302,338; Russian gross $160,000[5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/) |
| Release | Russian release 2 November 1994; United States release 21 April 1995 through Sony Pictures Classics[5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/) • [4](https://www.sonyclassics.com/burntbysun/burntbysun.html) |
| Sequels | A two-part continuation, *Burnt by the Sun 2: Precedence* and *Burnt by the Sun 2: Citadel*, released in 2010 and 2011[6](https://hearings.ndbecology.gov.kz/Disscusion/DisHearings/LoadFile/136571) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The action takes place during one summer day in 1936. Sergei Petrovich Kotov, a legendary military hero of the Bolshevik Revolution and a favorite of Stalin, is on vacation at a country dacha with his beautiful younger wife Marusia, their small daughter Nadia, and Marusia's relatives, former nobles and intellectuals.[4](https://www.sonyclassics.com/burntbysun/burntbysun.html) • [7](https://kino.mail.ru/cinema/movies/623183_utomlennye_solncem/)
The idyll is broken by the arrival of Dimitri (Mitya), Marusia's lover from about a decade earlier, who left under mysterious circumstances and has now returned. Mitya works for Stalin's secret police. He charms Nadia with games and music and rekindles Marusia's memories of their romance, while tension with Kotov builds until he reveals his purpose: Kotov is to be arrested as part of a nonexistent conspiracy to assassinate Stalin.[4](https://www.sonyclassics.com/burntbysun/burntbysun.html) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burnt_by_the_sun) The film presents the day as "the long happy day of a little girl, at the end of which her father is taken away," and closes with thunderclouds gradually obscuring the dacha's sunny skies.[9](https://tv.apple.com/ua/movie/%D1%83%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5-%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BD%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BC/umc.cmc.5xr132qixcdth6071d61eyixp?l=ru) • [10](https://history.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=734&searchfield=)
## Production
**A fast shoot from a fast script.** Mikhalkov and the screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov wrote the script, under the working title "Безусловный эффект шаровой молнии" ("The Unconditional Effect of Ball Lightning"), in a few months: work began in May 1993, the script was finished on 15 June, approved on 19 June, and shooting began a week later, in early summer 1993.[11](https://aif.ru/culture/movie/vzyali_dapkunayte_a_pro_yakovlevu_zabyli_kak_snimalis_utomlennye_solncem) • [12](https://www.culture.ru/live/movies/455/utomlennye-solncem) There was effectively no casting process. Mikhalkov wrote the role of Kotov for himself, briefly considered Vladimir Gostyukhin, and settled on himself after his small daughter Nadia looked so natural beside him; Ingeborga Dapkunaite joined the cast after meeting Mikhalkov and impressing him with her smile.[12](https://www.culture.ru/live/movies/455/utomlennye-solncem)
The production was a Russian-French co-operation between the studio TriTe and Camera One, with Canal + participation; Michel Seydoux was among the producers.[3](https://cultin.ru/films-utomljonnye-solncem) • [13](https://inter.pyramidefilms.com/pyramidefilms-international-catalogue/burnt-by-the-sun.html) Vilens Kalyuta was the cinematographer, Eduard Artemyev and Dmitry Atovmyan wrote the music, and Enzo Meniconi edited.[5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/)
**An autumn problem.** Shooting ran long, and by the time key scenes were filmed autumn had arrived although the story takes place on a hot summer day. Mikhalkov ordered thousands of artificial bright-green leaves that were attached one by one to the bare branches of the trees.[5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/) Nadia Mikhalkova was seven years old during filming; after the opening banya scene, in which she hid how hot she felt for fear of being cut, she fainted as soon as the take was announced as finished.[5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/)
## Title and intent
Mikhalkov has explained the title as a response to *Gone with the Wind*: "there the wind carries away, here the sun wearies. It is an image of a time when the light that warmed suddenly begins to burn."[14](https://vgik.info/today/creativelife/detail.php?ID=14400) The Russian title also echoes the popular tango "Утомлённые солнцем" by Oscar Strok, and an early idea was to call the film "Утомлённое солнце 36-го года" in reference to that song.[15](https://minizo.kchgov.ru/uploads/100_vielikikh_otiechiestviennykh_kinofilmov_-_ighor_anatolievich_musskii.pdf) He named Arkady Gaidar's story "Золотая чашка" ("The Golden Cup"), which has no direct plot but an atmosphere, as the seed from which the film grew.[14](https://vgik.info/today/creativelife/detail.php?ID=14400)
Mikhalkov and Ibragimbekov deliberately departed from reality, inventing Kotov and his story entirely. The director counted a phone call from a historian, who demanded the documents on Kotov's biography because he had heard the surname and was sure the man could be rehabilitated, as the highest praise for the fiction's plausibility.[12](https://www.culture.ru/live/movies/455/utomlennye-solncem) A disclaimer was added to the credits stating that the story is wholly invented but could have happened at any time and in any family.[12](https://www.culture.ru/live/movies/455/utomlennye-solncem)
## Reception and awards
At the 47th Cannes Film Festival in 1994 the film shared the Grand Jury Prize with [Zhang Yimou](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhang-yimou)'s *To Live* and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, also tied with *To Live*; it was nominated for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor).[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111579/awards/) Nine months after its release the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded it the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 67th Academy Awards, held 27 March 1995, where its competitors included *Before the Rain*, *[Eat Drink Man Woman](https://www.edgepedia.org/eat-drink-man-woman)*, *Farinelli*, and *Strawberry and Chocolate*.[12](https://www.culture.ru/live/movies/455/utomlennye-solncem) • [1](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1995) It was later nominated for the BAFTA Film Award for Best Film not in the English Language.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111579/awards/)
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 81% critics score from 16 reviews and a 93% audience score.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burnt_by_the_sun) Critics have repeatedly described its register as Chekhovian: the Washington Post's Desson Howe called it "a constant, rich tapestry of Chekhovian and Bergman-esque family life" suffused with political symbolism, while the Austin Chronicle's Marc Savlov called it "a brilliant, Chekhovian meditation on trust, love, and the intrusive horrors that period of time brought to otherwise normal families."[16](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/05/19/sun-shines-on-directors-vision/5b3d7e27-c22c-4371-8938-57fd2a8913ef/) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burnt_by_the_sun) Roger Ebert of the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) dissented, giving it 2 of 4 stars and judging it not very original.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burnt_by_the_sun) In Russia the film drew large audiences in Moscow and [Saint Petersburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/saint-petersburg) from its first screenings, and it remains a subject of divided opinion three decades later.[17](https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/95613) • [5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/)
The film was Mikhalkov's first post-Soviet work to deal directly with the political legacy of the Soviet past, and it opened a film saga about Kotov and his family continued in the two-part *Burnt by the Sun 2* of 2010 and 2011.[10](https://history.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=734&searchfield=) • [6](https://hearings.ndbecology.gov.kz/Disscusion/DisHearings/LoadFile/136571)
## Versions and dates
The international release runs 134 minutes; Russian sources list the film at 146 to 151 minutes, and Kinopoisk gives 2 hours 31 minutes.[4](https://www.sonyclassics.com/burntbysun/burntbysun.html) • [12](https://www.culture.ru/live/movies/455/utomlennye-solncem) • [5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/) The date of the world premiere is also reported differently: vokrug.tv gives 21 May 1994 in France, while Kinopoisk lists a world premiere of 7 February 1994.[18](https://www.vokrug.tv/product/show/utomlennye_solntsem/) • [5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/) The Russian theatrical release on 2 November 1994 is consistent across sources, and the DVD from Ruscico followed on 19 February 2003.[5](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/)
## References
1. [The 67th Academy Awards (1995), Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1995)
2. [Burnt by the Sun (1994) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111579/awards/)
3. [Утомлённые солнцем, Cultin.ru](https://cultin.ru/films-utomljonnye-solncem)
4. [Burnt by the Sun, Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.sonyclassics.com/burntbysun/burntbysun.html)
5. [Утомленные солнцем (1994), Кинопоиск](https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/40848/)
6. [Открытая тема (коллаж о фильмах, включая «Утомленные солнцем 2»)](https://hearings.ndbecology.gov.kz/Disscusion/DisHearings/LoadFile/136571)
7. [Утомленные солнцем (1994), Кино@Mail.ru](https://kino.mail.ru/cinema/movies/623183_utomlennye_solncem/)
8. [Burnt by the Sun, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burnt_by_the_sun)
9. [Утомленные солнцем, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/ua/movie/%D1%83%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5-%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BD%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BC/umc.cmc.5xr132qixcdth6071d61eyixp?l=ru)
10. [Burnt by the Sun, Toronto/San Francisco festival archive](https://history.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=734&searchfield=)
11. [Взяли Дапкунайте, а про Яковлеву забыли. Как снимались «Утомленные солнцем», Аргументы и Факты](https://aif.ru/culture/movie/vzyali_dapkunayte_a_pro_yakovlevu_zabyli_kak_snimalis_utomlennye_solncem)
12. [Утомленные солнцем, Культура.РФ](https://www.culture.ru/live/movies/455/utomlennye-solncem)
13. [Burnt by the sun, Pyramide International catalogue](https://inter.pyramidefilms.com/pyramidefilms-international-catalogue/burnt-by-the-sun.html)
14. [Никита Михалков вновь в родных стенах ВГИКа, ВГИК](https://vgik.info/today/creativelife/detail.php?ID=14400)
15. [100 великих отечественных кинофильмов (И. А. Мусский)](https://minizo.kchgov.ru/uploads/100_vielikikh_otiechiestviennykh_kinofilmov_-_ighor_anatolievich_musskii.pdf)
16. [Sun Shines on Director's Vision, The Washington Post, 18 May 1995](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/05/19/sun-shines-on-directors-vision/5b3d7e27-c22c-4371-8938-57fd2a8913ef/)
17. [«Утомленные солнцем» на широком экране, Коммерсантъ № 220, 19.11.1994](https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/95613)
18. [Утомленные солнцем (1994), Vokrug.tv](https://www.vokrug.tv/product/show/utomlennye_solntsem/)
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