** spoiler ** This gut-wrenching story of an abused race horse will tug at your heartstrings... Braslet-2 is a grey trotter at a Russian race track stable. Daily beatings from a cold-hearted trainer turns him into an unreliable emotional wreck, and in race after race he breaks his trot and finishes at a gallop, resulting in disqualification. To the trainer Braslet is worthless, so when World War II breaks out and Soviet Army representatives come to the track to requisition horses for the front, the trainer is only too happy to be rid of him. Now, instead of a racing sulky, Braslet is forced to pull heavy carts and sleighs laden with munitions. Gradually he resigns to his fate... and, towards the end, it is up to him alone to deliver an ammunition cart to a stranded division in the dead of a brutal Russian winter. Pulling a cart through a snowbound road, Braslet suddenly remembers... the sun-drenched track, the starting bell, the roar of the crowd, the thrill of competition - it all comes back to him, and he surges ahead, he's a trotter doing what he was trained to do... and finally winning the race.
I am a little foggy on minor details, as I last saw this film as a kid in Russia, close to 40 years ago! I remember seeing it at least twice (in the theater and when it was shown on TV), and have no idea if it is available in any video format, so the chances of anyone seeing it today are I would say pretty slim. But in case someone does find the title in some obscure online resource and decides in a fit of nostalgia to check it out, I do recommend seeing Braslet-2, although, as most Russian films, it is hard to watch at times.
I am a little foggy on minor details, as I last saw this film as a kid in Russia, close to 40 years ago! I remember seeing it at least twice (in the theater and when it was shown on TV), and have no idea if it is available in any video format, so the chances of anyone seeing it today are I would say pretty slim. But in case someone does find the title in some obscure online resource and decides in a fit of nostalgia to check it out, I do recommend seeing Braslet-2, although, as most Russian films, it is hard to watch at times.
