On the Nameless Height

On the Nameless Height (Russian: На безымянной высоте, Belarussian: На безыменнай вышыні) also known in English as On an Unnamed Hill and Unidentified Heights, is a Russian-Belarusian 2004 television film in four parts, set in 1944 in the Second World War.

Plot
The location is the Belarusian forests, close to the Polish border, during Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944. After a short pause, the Red Army is preparing to advance, but on one segment of the front there are two serious obstacles: an unnamed hill with unknown German strength, and a highly skilled German sniper, who is killing off not only Russian officers, but also all captured German officers before they can be interrogated. Because of this, the local commander, Major Inozemtsev, suspects that the hill is a trap, which the Germans are very eager to keep a secret.

A female specialist sniper, Olga Pozdneyeva (Viktoriya Tolstoganova) arrives to eliminate the German sniper. On the same lorry with reinforcements are the carefree ex-convict soldier Kolya Malakhov, the new lieutenant for the unit's reconnaissance platoon, Alexey Malyutin, and the platoon's very experienced staff sergeant, Ivan Bessonov, who is returning after a spell in hospital.

Eventually, Kolya is assigned to be Olga's assistant, and he immediately falls in love with her although she tries to keep a professional distance due Olga's previous experiences with the difficulty of sustaining a relationship in a combat zone. Katya Solovyova, the battalion HQ radio operator quickly identifies Lieutenant Malyutin as her love interest, later revealed to have been foretold in a fortune-telling seance, and they are quickly attracted to each other.

While the deadline for the offensive is drawing closer, the reconnaissance platoon continues to try to kidnap German officers for interrogation, Olga plays a cat and mouse game with the German sniper, and everyone is trying to avoid the fanatical SMERSH officer, Captain Shulgin, who suspects everyone of being a German spy or saboteur. Although Olga finally succeeds in killing the German sniper, they still don't know if the hill is a trap, so on the day of the offensive, the reinforced reconnaissance platoon is ordered to take the hill before more troops are committed. They all know it's a suicide mission where all or most are going to die.

Cast

 * Viktoriya Tolstoganova - Olga, a sniper
 * Aleksey Chadov - Kolya Malakhov, private
 * Vladimir Yaglych - Alexey Malyutin, lieutenant
 * Andrey Golubev - Major Inozemtsev
 * Anatoly Kot - Captain Shulgin, SMERSH
 * Alexander Pashutin - Ivan Bessonov, staff sergeant
 * Anna Kazyuchits - Katya Solovyov, telephone operator