The winner of the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Film and a nominee for an AcademyAward for Best Screenplay and for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, BALLAD OF A SOLDIER is an engaging and deeply moving romantic drama set against the backdrop of war-torn Russia.
In the midst of the Second World War, 19-year-old Russian soldier Alyosha (Vladimir Ivashov) earns himself a medal of honour for single-handedly destroying two advancing German tanks. Instead of accepting the medal, he requests a leave of absence from thefront line in order to visit his mother and to mend the leaking roof of her remote ruralfarmhouse. With his request granted, Alyosha begins an arduous and much-delayed journey eastwards that will change not only his own life, but also the lives of those hemeets along way. Among them are a one-legged soldier afraid to return home in hisinjured state, the adulterous wife of a comrade to whom Alyosha has agreed to deliver agift and, most significantly, a beautiful young girl named Shura (Zhana Prokhorenko) with whom he falls in love.
Boasting a powerfully emotional script and impressive performances from its lead actors, BALLAD OF A SOLDIER also features outstanding black and white cinematography thatadds an undeniable strength to Chukhrai’s vision of life during wartime.
BALLAD OF A SOLDIER (cert. PG) will be released on DVD (£19.99) by Nouveaux Pictures on 29th January 2007. Special Features include interview with director Grigory Chukhrai, Chronicle, photo gallery, filmographies, RUSCICO trailer, English 5.1 (dubbed), Russian 5.1 with English subtitles and chapter selection.
