After making the film, Aleksandr Askoldov lost his job, was expelled from the Communist Party, charged with social parasitism, exiled from Moscow, and banned from working on feature films for life. He was told that the single copy of the film had been destroyed. Mordyukova and Bykov, major Soviet movie stars, had to plead with the authorities to spare him of even bigger charges. The film was shelved by the KGB for twenty years.
In 1986, due to glasnost policies, the Conflict Commission of the Soviet Film-makers Union recommended the re-release of the movie, but Goskino refused to act. After a plea from Aleksandr Askoldov at the Moscow Film Festival, when the dissolution of the Soviet Union was imminent, the film was reconstructed and finally screened in 1987. The film is set in Ukraine, and those who know the language will spot the Ukrainisms in Rolan Bykov's lines.
Shot in 1967, this movie was screened in public for the first time only in 1987, which coincided with Glasnost.
The first Russian film in which Jewish characters had major and sympathetic roles.
The film was selected as the Soviet Union entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 61st Academy Awards.