The Edge

The Edge (, translit. Kray) is a 2010 Russian historical drama film directed by Alexei Uchitel. The film was nominated for the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was also selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards but it didn't make the final shortlist. Plot At the end of World War II, thousands of former Soviet POWs, repatriated from Germany, were sent to Siberia by Stalin, to be ‘re-educated'. Despite being a war hero, Ignat, a disgraced Red Army locomotive driver, is sent to one such labour camp, on the edge of a dense forest, as punishment for destroying the fastest locomotive in the Soviet Union during a reckless race. Upon arrival at the camp, Ignat quickly establishes a reputation for devotion to the labor camp's own steam railway engine. The railway line goes no further west than the camp because a bridge was washed out just before the start of the war. On a hunch, Ignat follows the line west, swims the river at the washed out bridge, and continues down the railway line. He soon discovers an abandoned steam engine trapped on the other side when the bridge washed out. Living inside the cab is a young German woman, Elsa, surviving by hunting and gathering. Having been on her own during the past years, she frequently talks to the old locomotive, calling it "Gustav" after her fiancé who was killed during the war. Ignat and Elsa start out fighting each other and are unable to communicate due to the language barrier. Eventually they start to work together, both in repairing the steam engine to run, and effecting makeshift repairs to the washed out bridge. They arrive back in camp with the awful looking steam engine and continue to work together repairing it.