S2 Ep. 9: Ballad of a Soldier (1959, Grigory Chukhray)

The Cold War Cinema team returns to discuss Grigory Chukhray's 1959 war drama Ballad of a Soldier.

Alyhosha is 19-years-old private on the Eastern Front during the Great Patriotic War (A.K.A. World War II). After destroying two German tanks, Alyosha, played by Vladimir Ivashov, is rewarded with a short leave to return home to see his mother and repair her roof. Over the next six days, the young soldier travels home across the countryside, often crossing paths with his countrymen in both mundane and profound ways: A one-legged soldier running from his wife, the wife of another private, found living with another man, and a tender vagabond girl, Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko), who he meets while hiding out in a rail car. Throughout his quiet picaresque, Alyhosha learns about the sacrifices and tenderness of a nation torn apart by war.

Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as we discuss:

The film's treatment of individualism versus collective responsibility.

The train as a metaphor in both the Soviet and US contexts.

The Soviet romance versus Hollywood romances.

The Soviet treatment of nature and rural spaces in this film and others.

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We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:

Paul recommends the film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William A. Wyler) and the book The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens 1946–1973 by Tony Balio.

Tony recommends the book Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Jason recommends the film The Forty-First (1956, Grigory Chukhray).