Plot Synposes
Ballad of a Solider (1959, Dir. Grigori Chukhrai): Ballad of a Soldier begins with nineteen year-old Private Alyosha Skvortsov as he single-handedly destroys two German tanks. He is rewarded with six days of leave, so that he may return home to his mother and repair a leaking roof. Romance and marital relationships play significant roles in the plot, as Alyosha first promises to deliver soap to the wife of a fellow private (a scene that will be focused on in greater depth under Sexual Infidelities), then helps a soldier discharged due to an amputated leg reunite with his wife. Later Alyosha meets Shura, a young woman who has stowed away on the same train that he is travelling on, with whom he quickly forms a romantic connection. Due to a series of delays and diversions, he is only able to reunite with his mother for a matter of minutes before he must return to the front.
The Cranes Are Flying (1957, Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov): The opening of The Cranes Are Flying centers on the romantic and playful adventures of a young Muscovite couple, Boris and Veronika, blissfully unaware of the impending chaos of war. But nearly overnight, the war begins and Veronika’s life changes forever. Boris is called to the front, and his cousin Mark begins to make a play for Veronika’s affection. Things continue to deteriorate for Veronika after her parents are killed in an air raid and her home is destroyed; she moves in with Boris’ parents, his sister, and Mark, who rapes her and pressures her into marriage. Meanwhile, Boris has been killed on the front saving the life of a fellow soldier, although as far as Veronika and his family know, he is missing in action. Rejected by Boris’ parents for her perceived infidelity to their son, Veronika is increasingly victimized and becomes ever more isolated as the war progresses (see Sexual Infidelities, cont. and The Mother in the Motherland).
Ivan’s Childhood (1962, Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky): Ivan’s Childhood centers on the story of an orphaned boy, Ivan Bondarev, whose entire family was killed by German soldiers. In order to avenge his family, Ivan runs away from school to join an army unit commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Gryaznov and finds a surrogate family in his fellow soldiers. A subplot of the film centers on the sometimes aggressive romantic pursuit of the unit’s military nurse, Masha, by Captain Kholin, and it is this relationship that I will focus on in greater detail in Romance on the Front.