The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed

The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed is a 1979 Soviet five-part television film directed by Stanislav Govorukhin. The script, written by Arkady and Georgy Vayner, is based on the plot of their novel The Era of Mercy. Filming occurred in 1978-1979; the pavilion scenes were filmed mainly at the Odessa Film Studio and the natural ones in Moscow. It stars singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky in one of his final screen appearances alongside actor Vladimir Konkin in the main roles; Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Sergei Yursky, and several other famous Soviet actors also participated in the film. The film is set in post-war Moscow, where the Black Cat gang operates. The investigation into the gang is carried out by employees of the Department for Combating Banditry of the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department, headed by Captain Zheglov. The film's plot echoes the real story of the Krasnogorsk gang of Ivan Mitin, who was engaged in robberies and murders in Moscow and the Moscow Oblast in the early 1950s. The premiere of Meeting Place was timed to coincide with Police Day and took place on 11-16 November 1979 on Soviet Central Television. The press reacted quite lively to the film's release; reviewers were interested not only in the acting and directorial work but also in the moral problems presented in the story, primarily associated with the ethical confrontations between Zheglov and Sharapov. Among the film's critics were the Vayner brothers, who disagreed with the director's intervention in the dramatic outline of the novel and asked to have their surname removed from the credits. Later, at the brothers' initiative, their surname was returned. While the film has not received any awards, its creators received diplomas from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Vysotsky was awarded posthumously three times for playing the role of Captain Zheglov: in 1981, a special diploma and a jury prize at the 9th All-Union Film Festival in Yerevan; in 1987, a USSR State Prize; and in 1998, the Prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. In 1999, Vladimir Konkin was awarded the Russian Interior Ministry Prize for his role as Sharapov It was a cult film in the USSR and, along with Seventeen Moments of Spring, became a part of popular culture for several generations of Russian-language viewers. The series was released in the West as The Age of Mercy, after the original novel by the Vayner brothers on which it is based.