The Cranes Are Flying (Letyat zhuravli)

Wednesday 2 September at 7.30pm

Mikhail Kalatozov | USSR | 1957 | 95 mins | PG cert

Awarded the Palme d’Or, Kalatozov’s shattering anti-war classic frames two young lovers split apart by the outbreak of WWII within dazzling black-and-white cinematography.

“Something like the Gone with the Wind of Soviet Russia—a sensation both at home and abroad that pointed the way toward a post-Stalin thaw in filmic expression—this shattering tale of wartime resilience from Mikhail Kalatozov follows the saga of Veronika (the radiant Tatiana Samoilova) who endures heartache and uncertainty when her lover is lost on the front lines of World War II. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, the movie is a marvel of dazzling black-and-white cinematography, mixing passages of exhilarating handheld camerawork with striking deep-focus compositions worthy of Henri Cartier-Bresson.” – Film Society Lincoln Centre

“The first indisputable masterpiece of post-Stalin cinema.”– Josephine Woll

“Kalatozov’s freewheeling camerawork, with its almost unhinged movements and impossibly wide-angle lenses, creates an almost dreamlike atmosphere. It’s as if the very screen itself were at the mercy of the characters’ feelings—swaying and shaking with each shout, each heaved breath, each impassioned lunge.” – Bilge Ebari, Village Voice