Russia

RUSSIA: Ballada O Soldate (Grigorij Chukrai) (1959)

Which other country to start with when my beloved Russia is there. I have always had a strange emotional connect with Russia (I am not a Russian) since childhood. Enough about that and moving on: Ballada o soldate literally translates to Ballad of a soldier. This is not a war movie as i thought it would be from the title. Nevertheless war (WW2) provides the background for the film. The film narrates the journey of Alyosha (the protagonist), a young soldier in the Russian Army, from the battle front to his hometown on a pretty tight schedule. His encounters with various other people during his voyage in this war torn time period makes up this movie. Through these meetings the feelings of comradeship, trust, doubt, friendship, love and betrayal are explored. Halfway through the movie, the female protagonist Shura, raises the age old question of whether there could be friendship between a boy and a girl without love in the middle. The movie does provide its own version of an answer to this question and leaves open ended answers to some other topics. The war scenes are displayed pretty realistically for an old movie and the enormous Russian farmlands are captured decently. Dramatic music forms the background score with apt effect at various parts. This black and white movie almost felt like reading a book and it makes you ponder after watching it.
(The format i will be following for the headings from this post onwards is: NAME OF COUNTRY: Movie Title (Name of Director) (Year of release) )