The American video distributor Anchor Bay Entertainment has acquired First Squad - The Moment Of Truth, Yoshiharu Ashinoand Studio 4°C's animated video version of a story by Russian artists Misha Sprits and Aljosha Klimov.

First Squad is set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. A group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities has been drafted into a special unit to fight the invading German army. A Schutzstaffel (SS) officer attempts to raise from the dead an army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause.

The film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival in June and won the Kommersant newspaper's prize. It also played at Locarno, at Cannes in France, at Sitges, and at Waterloo, Canada.

Ashino had previous directed Tweeny Witches, and Studio 4°C animated Tekkonkinkreet, Genius Party, and parts of The Animatrix.


Keyword : Studio 4°C, Animated, The Animatrix