The Cranes Are Flying


The Cranes Are Flying is a 1957 Soviet film about World War II. It depicts the cruelty of war and the damage suffered to the Soviet psyche as a result of World War II. It was directed at Mosfilm by the Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov in 1957 and stars Aleksey Batalov and Tatiana Samoilova. It was adapted by Viktor Rozov from his play. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, the only Soviet film to win that award, although The Turning Point was one of eleven films awarded that year's Grand Prix, the predecessor of the Palme d'Or.

Synopsis

In Moscow, on Saturday June 21, 1941, Veronika and her boyfriend Boris have stayed out all night. They run through the city as the sun rises. They watch cranes fly over the city, then Veronika sneaks back into her apartment building, promising to meet him in a few days. Boris sneaks back into the apartment he shares with his father, Fyodor Ivanovich, a doctor; his sister, Irina; his grandmother; and his cousin, Mark. A few hours later, during lunch on Sunday, Mark wakes Boris up with news. The Germans have invaded the Soviet Union.
A few days later, Mark meets Veronika at the time she arranged to see Boris, telling her Boris is busy at work at the factory, and also that he loves her, which she is not happy to hear. Soon after, Boris's coworker Stepan comes to visit Veronika and Boris, and reveals that he and Boris both volunteered for the army. Veronika is hurt, and learns Boris has to leave that day, and will miss her birthday the next day. Boris goes home to pack and asks his grandmother to give Veronika her birthday gift from him, a stuffed squirrel toy, into which he slides a love note. Boris's family and co-workers have a farewell meal for him, as Veronika rushes to his building. She is too late, discovering he has already left, but his grandmother gives her the stuffed squirrel. Veronika rushes across the city to the assembly station and searches for Boris, but narrowly misses finding him as he marches off to war with the other recruits.
Some time later, Veronika calls Boris's grandmother, who still has no word of him. She goes home with her mother and father, only for an air raid siren to sound. Veronika's parents tell her to go to the Metro station, which is being used as an air raid shelter, but they refuse to leave, telling her they will join her later. After the air raid, she returns home to find her building destroyed and her parents dead. Boris's family invites Veronika to stay in his old room in their apartment.
Time passes, and Mark and Veronika are alone in the apartment when another air raid occurs. Despondent at being separated from Boris, she refuses to go to the shelter. Mark has been pursuing Veronika. He is in love with her, but she continually refuses him, waiting for Boris to return. As the air raid continues, Mark corners her and makes a pass at her, but she pushes him away. He pursues her, and the scene is left ambiguous, but it is implied that Mark rapes Veronika.
Meanwhile, Boris serves with the Red Army in the swamps west of Smolensk, on the Eastern Front. He gets into an argument with another young soldier, Volodya, who insults a photo of Veronika. Their commanding officer catches them fighting and assigns both of them to a dangerous reconnaissance mission.
Back in Moscow, Mark shames Veronika into agreeing to marry him. Even though she despises him, she does not admit what he did to her, and as a result the rest of the family believes she has betrayed Boris.
Back at the front, Volodya is injured on the reconnaissance mission and Boris saves his life. Just after dragging Volodya to safety in the forest, Boris is shot, and in his final moments he has a vision of the last time he saw Veronika, and a fantasy of the wedding they never got to enjoy.
More time passes, and the family is relocated with many other Russians from Moscow to Siberia, to escape the German offensive. They live in a temporary community. Veronika works as a nurse in a military hospital run by Boris's father Fyodor Ivanovich, where his sister Irina is also studying to be a doctor. Mark and Veronika are clearly unhappy in their marriage. One of the soldiers in the hospital becomes hysterical when he receives a letter saying that his girlfriend has left him for another man. Veronika rushes outside to get Fyodor Ivanovich, who is processing arriving wounded troops. She barely misses seeing Volodya, who is about to be admitted to the hospital, when Fyodor Ivanovich says the hospital is full and Volodya and the others must go to another hospital. Fyodor Ivanovich goes inside and admonishes the distraught soldier to forget about his unfaithful girlfriend, since women who cannot wait for their men to return are not worth grieving. Veronika overhears Fyodor Ivanovich's speech and becomes very upset, since she appears to be such a woman.
Overwhelmed with guilt, Veronika runs to a railroad bridge, intending to jump in front of a rapidly approaching train. Just before she does, she sees a young boy nearly get hit by a car and runs into the road to save him. She learns the boy has been separated from his mother and that his name, coincidentally, is also Boris. Veronika decides to informally adopt the boy, and takes him back to the communal home. She looks for her squirrel toy, to show to the child, but finds it missing. Irina, who loathes Veronika for seemingly betraying Boris, spitefully tells Veronika that Mark took the toy to give to his mistress Antonina, at her birthday party.
Veronika races over to Antonina's party and finds the squirrel toy. A partygoer has found Boris's note, which Veronika never found before, and is reading it. Veronika grabs it, and we hear Boris narrate this final tender love note to her. Meanwhile, at the hospital, the head of the orchestra Mark plays for, who is also a suitor of Antonina's, tries to borrow an ambulance from Fyodor Ivanovich, to take Antonina on a joyride. The orchestra head tries to guilt Fyodor Ivanovich by reminding him of the deal to get Mark exempted from the draft. Fyodor Ivanovich has never heard of this deal, and the orchestra head realizes he has revealed too much.
Back at the house, Fyodor Ivanovich confronts Mark, saying he knows that Mark's deferral from conscription was not because he was considered too talented to be drafted, as he had claimed, but because he bribed an official, in Fyodor Ivanovich's name. Fyodor Ivanovich realizes that Mark has betrayed not only Russia, but the family as well, and has taken advantage of Veronika. Fyodor Ivanovich kicks Mark out of the house, while Veronika is invited to stay and is forgiven by the family for "betraying" Boris.
Some time later, Volodya, having recovered, comes in search of Boris's family, to tell them the news about Boris's death. He mistakes Veronika for a stranger and tells her the story with no warning or preparation, but also says that Boris truly loved his fiancee. Volodya feels horrible once Veronika reveals she was Boris's fiancee.
Time passes, and it is 1945 and the war has ended. Veronika and Volodya stroll by the river in Moscow. It is implied that they are quite close, but Veronika refuses to believe Boris is dead, since Volodya was carried away injured without knowing for sure that Boris had been killed. Veronika says that Boris's friend Stepan, who volunteered with Boris, will know what happened. When Stepan's unit returns, Veronika carries a huge bouquet of flowers, intending to give them to Boris, and hunts for him and Stepan during a large celebration at the train station. Veronika finds Stepan and finally learns that Boris is indeed dead. Stepan sadly gives her another bouquet of flowers, and Veronika stumbles in tears through the celebrating crowd. As Stepan gives a rousing speech, asserting that those who died in the war will never be forgotten, Veronika goes from grieving to handing out her flowers to the returning soldiers. When she looks up, she sees cranes flying again in the sky over Moscow.

Reception and influence

As film scholar Josephine Woll observes, the protagonist Veronika was instrumental in shaping the post-Stalinist Soviet movies by heralding more complicated, multi-dimensional celluloid heroines, as well as focusing on the impact of war on common people. It was not only Soviet audiences that accepted and sympathized with Veronika‘s story. The lead actress of Cranes, the beautiful Tatiana Samoilova, who was frequently identified with her role, took Europe by storm. Following the film's victory at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958, where it earned the event‘s prestigious Grand Prize, the world celebrated the film‘s main protagonist, and critics hailed the production for its stunning cinematography, acting, direction, and editing. Woll notes that the French Liberation commentator, for example, approvingly contrasted Samoilova‘s purity and authenticity with that of Brigitte Bardot, a Western female icon. Samoilova remembered receiving a watch from her East German fans during a festival there; the gift featured the inscription: "Finally we see on the Soviet screen a face, not a mask."

Cast