Letyat zhuravli

THE CRANES ARE FLYING was a sensation in 1957. In the heroic war film genre an individual fate suddenly shone through, as the tragedy of the individual took precedence over the representation of a general sensation of struggle and victory. Mikhail Kalatosov's work became the key film of the political “thaw”, a signal of respect for the experiences of every single individual with their moments of happiness and existential lows.

The main character is eighteen-year-old Veronika, who loves the engineer Boris. When the war breaks out and Boris volunteers for the front, Veronika gives herself over to his cousin Mark. Soon however she comes to perceive her marriage to this self-centred man as treason ... Actress Tatiana Samoilova and cameraman Sergey Urusevsky both played a major role in the success of the film, with the latter capturing the fable from the perspective of the main character with fluidly-captured scenes and a striking use of light and shadow. RS