I was 15 when I saw this film in July 1967 in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses during the 5th Moscow Film Festival. People there were absolutely shocked with fantastic skill of Paolo Cavara. All the people in the Palace stood up and applauded to the Director who was present together with some other people who participated in the film. Applause was endless but at least more than half an hour. It was evident for everybody who saw the film competition program that this film was #1. I was extremely surprised several days later when I knew that this film got NOTHING. Six months later I was present at a lecture in a small town 150 km from Moscow at a lecture of a film critic about this film festival. He told a fantastic story. When the film selection commission received this film for the competition program at a very last minute they unanimously decided that this film will win and the jury later also considered this film #1. But the Cuban delegation (USSR and Cuba had very complicated relations at that time with Cubans because of their friendship then with Mao in China) protested. They said that the events in Vietnam had been shown in a wrong way. And their protest was satisfied. Thus we lost a fantastic director because in case of his victory his destiny might be glorious. Now I cannot find this film anywhere. Your site is fantastic because you HAVE information on this rare almost forgotten film.
