Cinema
Ballad of a Soldier
Баллада о солдате
Grigori Chukhrai · 1959
Synopsis
On the Eastern Front, Alyosha Skvortsov, a nineteen-year-old soldier, destroys two German tanks. Instead of the decoration the general offers him, he asks for leave to see his mother again and mend the roof of the house. He is granted six days. The journey across the country at war is long: he takes on a bar of soap for a comrade's wife, helps a disabled soldier at a station and travels, in a freight car, with a young girl, Shura.
Context
The screenplay is by Valentin Yezhov and the director; the photography is by Vladimir Nikolayev and Era Savelyeva, the music by Mikhail Ziv. Vladimir Ivashov plays Alyosha and Zhanna Prokhorenko Shura, with Nikolai Kryuchkov as the general and Yevgeny Urbansky as the invalid. Produced by Mosfilm, the film was released in 1959; its director received the Lenin Prize for it.
Who it is for
A war film of about an hour and a half, which follows a long journey home rather than the fighting at the front.
Prizes and reception
Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1960, then the British Academy award for best film.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.