it do not surprise me that this short ( 91 minute ) b or w movie that be make 50 year ago in the soviet union during the short period call ottepel or the thaw and have gain so much love and admiration among the movie lovers over the world . it be sublime and beautifully film . some scene feel like there be make way ahead of their time . sergei urusevsky camera work and creative discovery be include in the text book and widely imitate . the film tell the moving and timeless story of love destroy by merciless war but eternally alive in the memory of a young woman . it be also the film about loyalty and memory and ability to live on when it seem there be nothing to live for while it be about forgiveness and and about hope . the film receive ( absolutely deservingly ) the grand prix at cannes film festival and tatiana samoilova be choose a a recipient of a special award at cannes for play veronika and the young girl happily in love with the best man in the world in the beginning of the movie . after separation with her beloved who go to the front and the loss of her family in the bomb ride and and the marriage to the man she never love and only wish he never exist and she turn to the shadow of herself and she become dead inside . her long journey to redemption and to finally accept death of her beloved and to learn how to live with it and be a fascinating and heartbreaking one and it simply would not leave any viewer indifferent . for me and the movie be very personal and dear because i be bear and grow up in the city where it character live and be so happy in the beginning . i walk the same street and square and and bridge over the moskva river . every family in the former soviet union have lose at least one but often more than one family member to a combat or to the concentration camp or to the ghetto or to hunger and cold and and illness during wwii and my family be not exception . my mother and grandmother know the horror of war and never heal pain of loss not just from the movie and the book . crane be fly speaks to me clearly and honestly and touch me very deeply . it be a masterpiece of movie making but it be a part of my life my background and my memory and and my past .