The article is devoted to quantum effects in highly deformed nuclei and the related features of the fission mechanism in the low-energy photofission of heavy nuclei. The following questions are considered: the spectrum of transition states (fission channels), the symmetry of the nuclear configuration in the deformation process, the features of the passage through the barrier due to the existence in the second well of quasistationary states of fissile and nonfissile modes, the isomeric-shelf phenomenon in deep sub-barrier fission, and the relation between the fragment mass distribution and the structure of the fission barrier.