The Cranes are Flying (1957)
"Letyat zhuravli" (original title)

Veronica plans a rendezvous with her lover, Boris, at the bank of river, only for him to be drafted into World War II shortly thereafter.

Director:

Mikhail Kalatozov

Writers:

Viktor Rozov (play), Viktor Rozov (screenplay)

Stars:

Tatyana Samoylova, Aleksey Batalov, Vasiliy Merkurev

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 4 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tatyana Samoylova	...	Veronika (as T. Samoylova)
Aleksey Batalov	...	Boris
Vasiliy Merkurev	...	Fyodor Ivanovich (as V. Merkuryev)
Aleksandr Shvorin	...	Mark (as A. Shvorin)
Svetlana Kharitonova	...	Irina (as S. Kharitonova)
Konstantin Kadochnikov	...	Volodya (as K. Nikitin)
Valentin Zubkov	...	Stepan (as V. Zubkov)
Antonina Bogdanova	...	Grandmother (as A. Bogdanova)
Boris Kokovkin	...	Tyernov (as B. Kokovkin)
Ekaterina Kupriyanova	...	Anna Mikhajlovna (as Ye. Kupriyanova)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Valentina Ananina
Olga Dzisko	...	(as O. Dzisko)
Klarina Frolova-Vorontsova	...	(as K. Frolova)
Leonid Knyazev	...	(as L. Knyazev)
Georgiy Kulikov	...	(as Yu. Kulikov)

Storyline

Veronica and Boris are walking in the streets of Moscow and they love each other. Veronica is laughing, cause they are happy together this morning. They see some cranes in the sky. When arriving to Veronica's house they talk about a rendezvous at the bank of the river. And the 2nd World War begins in Moscow. Boris works in a factory and he hasn't got time to speak with Veronica. He has to go to the war ...

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Plot Keywords:

staircase | adultery | train | cousin cousin relationship | anti war | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

21 March 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Cranes are Flying

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mosfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the most notable features of the film is cinematographer Sergei Uruseveky's then ground-breaking use of hand-held cameras. He had learnt how to film like this when he was a military cameraman during the war.

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Connections

Featured in To Each His Own Cinema (2007)

User Reviews

Superb film!

One of those films that I happened across through The Criterion Collection and as usual indulged as a change of pace. That turned out to be a great decision. I was almost mesmerised by the quality of the film, the story it told and the way it was told. The almost minimalist feel to the film with sparse dialogue and almost constant music just added a whole evocative level to the film. This really is a superb film to spend some time with and enjoy.