Ballad of a Soldier
Short description
Set during World War II, this drama follows Alyosha Skvortsov, a young soldier who is granted a brief leave of absence after an act of bravery on the battlefield. Rather than accepting a medal, Alyosha asks for time to visit his mother. As he travels through a war-torn landscape, his compassion leads him to help various people he meets, including a woman named Shura, with whom he develops a romantic connection. Throughout his journey, he struggles to maintain hope while witnessing the devastation of the conflict.
Directed by Grigoriy Chukhray, this was his second feature following The Forty-First. Produced by Mosfilm in the Soviet Union, the film stars Vladimir Ivashov as Alyosha and Zhanna Prokhorenko as Shura. The supporting cast includes Antonina Maksimova, Nikolay Kryuchkov, Evgeniy Urbanskiy, and Elza Lezhdey, with a total of 50 credited cast members.
The film has been well received by both viewers and professionals. It holds an 8.2 rating on IMDb from 12,000 votes and an 8.0 on TMDB based on 225 votes. Film critics gave the movie a slightly higher score of 8.5 based on 16 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- For the role in the film "Ballad of a Soldier," Zhanna Prokhorenko was forced to leave her studies at the Moscow Art Theatre School. At Chukhrai’s personal request, the young actress was admitted to VGIK after successfully passing her exams.
- According to Grigory Chukhrai, the title "Ballad of a Soldier" was suggested by Mikhail Romm after reading one of the script drafts.
- Work on the film's script took place at Valentin Yezhov’s dacha. At the same time, Grigory Pozhenyan was also creating the script for the film "Thirst" (1959) there.
- Part of the film crew left due to disagreements with the director's vision.
- On the first day of filming (the scene of departure from the front), Grigory Chukhrai injured his leg, and when filming resumed, he fell ill with typhoid fever.
- Initially, Oleg Strizhenov was supposed to play Alyosha Skvortsov, and Liliya Aleshnikova was to play Shura. Instead, Chukhrai cast two debutantes – Vladimir Ivashov, a second-year student at VGIK, and Zhanna Prokhorenko, a student at the Moscow Art Theatre School.
- The film is set in 1942, but the soldiers on screen are wearing uniforms from 1943—with shoulder boards instead of collar tabs. Frontline soldier Chukhrai was, of course, aware of this discrepancy, but deliberately went ahead with it to include this obvious anachronism in the film. The director hoped that the film would be watched by foreign audiences who saw Soviet liberating soldiers in the new uniform and sought to make the protagonist’s appearance more recognizable to them.
- Vladimir Ivashov named his firstborn Alexei in honor of the main character of "Ballad of a Soldier".
- The first version of the script largely focused on describing the heroic labor of those working in the rear, and Shura was supposed to die in the city during a bombing.
- Famous Hollywood actress Liza Minnelli admitted in one interview that she watched this film five times in a row.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
