Soviet Film: Ballad of a Soldier
June 20, 2008
Russian Cine-Club Presents: Ballad of a Soldier
Free to the Public and everyone is welcome
When: Thursday, June 26, 7:00 P.M.
Where: Circle Cinema, 12 S. Lewis Ave.
Grigori Chukrai’s film classic, Ballad of a Soldier, has been selected for the June cine-club in observance of the events of June 22, 1941.
Alyosha Skvortsov (Vladimiri Skvortsov) has just been granted six days leave as a reward for having destroyed two German tanks. He is anxious to return home to see his mother and repair her leaking roof. As he makes his way across the countryside we see the destruction and suffering that has been visited on his homeland, but we are also shown glimpses into the better part of human nature as Alyosha sacrifices precious time to do errands and favors for his fellow soldiers and performs numerous selfless acts. Hitching a ride on a baggage car, he meets and falls in love with Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko), pretty young refugee. Indeed, the film is in no small part, a love story – romantic love with Shura, the bonds of devotion between mother and son, the love between a mature married couple, and the broader general affection and good will Alyosha has for his fellow man.
The story becomes all the more poignant when we learn Alyosha’s fate at the end of the film.
Comments
Got something to say?