| Coordinates of Death Координаты смерти |
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DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Samvel Gasparov Nguyen Xuan Chan |
| Screenplay by | Aleksandr Lapshin Hoang Tich Chi |
| Studio | Gorky Film Studio Sovinfilm Hãng phim truyện Việt Nam Fafilm Vietnam |
| Release date(s) | 1985 (USSR) |
| Running time | 78 minutes with overture, entr'acte, and outro music |
| Country | USSR Vietnam |
| Language | Russian |
Coordinates of Death (alternative title Target for Death ; Russian: Координаты смерти, Vietnamese: 'Tọa độ chết') is a 1985 film by Samvel Gasparov (USSR) and Nguyen Xuan Chan (Vietnam). Film was produced as a result of friendly cooperation of both Soviet and Vietnamese cinematography. The movie itself is mostly about American brutality during the Vietnam War.
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Events depicted in the movie unfold in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Americans are bombing Vietnamese towns and villages, breaking into households, killing women and children. All ships of the European merchant fleet have already left the coast of North Vietnam, but the Soviet dry cargo ship “Chelyabinsk” refuses to leave Vietnamese shores despite a United States military ultimatum. A few days later the ship is sunk and Soviet sailors come to the aid their Vietnamese comrades and join a caravan of Vietnamese insurgents moving along the Ho Chi Min Trail.
The plot concerns the visit of an American actress to worn-torn North Vietnam. At the height of the Vietnam War, actress Kate Francis (a cinematic representation of Jane Fonda) travels along with the resistance fighters and witnesses first-hand the destruction heaped upon the Vietnamese people by the American forces. Before returning to the US in order to deliver the truth about the current state of matters to the wider international community, she organizes a press conference to relate all that she has seen and to literally sing the praises of the Vietnamese people.
Meanwhile in Haiphong, Kate’s Vietnamese friend Mai introduces her to her husband, combat engineer Phong, who has recently returned home from the Soviet Union aboard the “Chelyabinsk”. The CIA is preparing an explosion in Haiphong port, but friends manage to prevent it.
Filming took place in Hanoi and the most picturesque Vietnamese landscapes, such as the Central Highlands, Halong Bay and Haiphong. The film features a lot of high-budget scenes, such as downed American pilots, aircraft crashed into the sea, burned villages and mass battle-scenes. A lot of Soviet specialists worked in Vietnam portraying American military aviators.
Theme songs of the film, which appear at the beginning and end of the movie, are The Spring (composed by Pham Minh Tuan) and The land of Vietnamese (an anti-war song, which Kate Francis performed during one of the movie’s scenes. Though visually being performed by actress Tatyana Lebedeva, the song is voiced by the famous Russian singer Larisa Dolina).
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