Ekipazh

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Ekipazh
International poster from 1980
Directed by	Alexander Mitta
Produced by	Mosfilm
Written by	Yuli Dunsky, Valeri Frid, Aleksandr Mitta, Boris Urinovsky
Distributed by	Mosfilm
Release date(s)	1979
Running time	143 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian
IMDb profile

Ekipazh (in Russian Экипаж, the crew) is a movie produced by Mosfilm in 1979. It was the first catastrophe movie shot in the Soviet Union.

The colour movie was directed by Alexander Mitta (Александр Наумович Митта) and consists of two parts with total time 143 minutes. It was watched by more than 70 millions of viewers, mostly throughout the Eastern Bloc where it won several awards. The movie was distributed internationally under title "The Crew".

First part of the film tells about personal lives of the air crew, their problems and relationships. The second, dramatic part lands the TU-154 Aeroflot airplane in city of "Bidri" located somewhere in Middle East. The city gets destroyed by an apocalyptic catastrophe but the plane manages to take off at the last moment. On their way back to Moscow the crew discovers damage of an outer part of the plane, impossible to repair from inside. One of the pilots volunteers to get out of the plane and manages to fix the problem and to return back, covered by ice crust but alive. During landing in Moscow the plane burns but the travelers and the crew are able to escape.