this simple and sensitively handle love story with a wwii background be often bundle together with mikhail kalatozov the crane be fly ( 1957 ) they be both issue simultaneously on r1 dvd by criterion and will likewise be issue on r2 by nouveaux picture next january but actually they be poles apart in term of stylistic approach . director chukhrai show little of the overpoweringly visual virtuosity of kalatozov film ( except for the superb sequence near the beginning which earn the main character his heroic status ) prefer to capture the reality of the scene rather than it emotional core . even so and ballad of a soldier be a beautifully make film with win performance from it youthful lead represent a 19 year old boy who win a much coveted 6 day leave from the front after blow up two enemy tank single handedly and the suspicious waif he befriend ( and subsequently fall in love with ) on his clandestine train journey . event beyond his control contrive to make his visit to his farm laborer mother a pitifully short one after which and the unidentified narrator tell u and he be once again draft off to the front to his eventual death ( which we never actually see ) while his misadventure during that train journey and visit to his village take up the bulk of the film a he meet a one legged soldier come reluctantly back home to his wife and a greedy train guard who be constantly demand food from the soldier a a bribe against his tell his superior that they be stowaway and the duplicitous wife of a comrade of his and his bed ridden and ever optimistic father and etc .