Zvezda (The Star) takes place in the summer of 1944, when Red Army troops were fighting on the Polish border in hopes of halting Hitler's advancing forces. In a desperate attempt to gain intelligence on a massive tank attack the Germans are allegedly orchestrating, a team of scouts with the radio code name "Star" is haphazardly put together from the ranks of the surviving soldiers. Though a series of encounters with the enemy quickly follows, the rag-tag group of men are able to broadcast the details of future enemy tactics and troop movements even as they are annihilated in a brutal battle with German troops. The Russian soldiers are given posthumous medals for bravery in 1964. Zvezda is directed by Nikolai Lebedev, who greatly admires Steven Spielberg's work, and admittedly tried to emulate many of the American director's techniques used in Saving Private Ryan.