If this exact film (telling instead the story of an American veteran) were made in the United States, it would be considered a classic. This is an incredible film. Stylistically brilliant, movingly told, it should be more popular than it is.
shareMany soviet films are sadly unknown to the wider audience because of the complicated history that Russia and the then-Soviet Union had, which is in my opinion a great pity.
shareI believe that intelligent viewers will explore soviet and russian movies more from now on, because the imdb.com is such a great tool of information.
I started watching russian movies about 5 years ago, and I'm fascinated about them. My latest treasure is the miniseries
MASTER AND MARGARITA
which can be purchased here:
russiandvd.com
Yeah, I agree. This is a very-very good film.
But there is an important thing.
In real life the russian soldiers like Sokolov (who came home from german captivity) were closed to the Gulags (or executed) because of treason and nobody cared that they were POWs in Germany. Therefore the story is a simply lie. It's O.K.: Sokolov was a hero and victim and his family was killed by a bombing. But the soldiers like Sokolov probably died in the Gulag or they were killed by the Soviet laws after their homecoming. (and the kids like Vanya maybe starved to death or became criminals and went to the Gulag or to a simple prison - by the way there is a very good hungarian film about the "war orphans": Valahol Európában (Somewhere In Europe) by Géza Radványi.
In the US it happened a different way. (for example Kurt Vonnegut's case)