the aftermath of world war two almost result in the death of soviet cinema . in the early year of the 1950s and film production come close to a complete standstill { a mere nine feature film be release in 1951 } and and the work of all filmmaker be closely monitor and and often censor and by the government . follow the death of joseph stalin in 1953 and filmmaker be give great artistic freedom with their picture and though many remain reluctant to challenge the heroic and optimistic and propagandistic stance towards warfare that have be prevalent in previous year . it wasn not until 1957 that director mikhail kalatozov and writer viktor rozov become bold enough to produce what be widely consider the first post stalin soviet masterpiece and letyat zhuravli or the crane be fly and one of the fine depiction of war i have see from any country or time period . not only be the film laud for it artistic brilliance in the soviet union and but international recognition be soon to follow and and kalatozov film be honour with the palm dor at the 1958 cannes film festival . the crane be fly be both an invigorate visual feast and an audacious and humanistic portrayal of war . unlike many soviet war theme film of the time and it be less constrain by the archetypal figure of the traditional war time hero and and more concerned with the futility and brutality and and indeed and the inevitability of conflict . love and a a cinematic concept and be too often idealise a a notion that somehow conquers all and endure endless hardship and and yet the reality be substantially less romantic . in the film and two lover and veronika ( tatyana samojlova ) and boris ( aleksey batalov ) and separate by the advent of the wwii { widely know in the soviet union a the great patriotic war and 1941 1945 } and pledge to marry after the war and but tragedy deny the couple their wish . drive to betrayal by the unending torment and uncertainty of wait and veronika agrees to wed boris cousin and mark ( aleksandr shvorin ) and a handsome but unworthy youth . the film may conclude with the proud victory of the soviet and and a patriotic flag wave parade and but the optimism of this sequence be overwhelmingly eclipse by the bittersweet tragedy of our young female protagonist and who wanders soullessly through the celebrating crowd . perhaps the most remarkable feature of the crane be fly be sergei urusevsky inspire and dynamic hand hold cinematography and which realistically and dizzily capture the chaos and confusion of war and not necessarily in the hail of gunfire and the cry of die comrade { in fact and only one of the film sequence join boris on the eastern front } and but from the perspective of the family and friend who be leave behind . in one particularly impressive and oft cite long shot and the camera follow veronika a she frantically search for boris in a crowd of depart recruit and their family . the hand hold camera smoothly follow the girl off a bus and jostle through the crowd alongside her capture momentary snippet of loved one say farewell to their son and husband before unexpectedly crane above the crowd a veronika disappears into the dust of a passing squadron of army tank and a breathtaking movement that offer scope and urgency to the dramatic episode . urusevsky first acquire his film experience a a military cameraman during the war and and obviously fell in love with the storytelling possibility of hand hold photography represent the camera and he once declare and can express what the actor be unable to portray represent his inner sensation . the cameraman must act with the actor .