Amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, there have been lots of films being spoken about that have depicted the plight of refugees and even films that have been made in Ukraine or even shot in Ukraine, but not many people are aware that there are some brilliant war films over the years that have come out of Russia. During World War II, Russia (then USSR) along with a few other countries was known as the Eastern Front. Many filmmakers from Russia have done ahead to depict numerous aspects of the battle on the Russian front from that time.
As we go down memory lane, here are some of the best Russian war films that are a must-watch:
The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
Veronika (Tatyana Samoylova) and Boris (Aleksey Batalov) meet in Moscow just before WWII. They walk along the river, watching cranes fly overhead, and make a pact to meet before Boris departs to war. Boris misses the rendezvous and rushes to the front lines, but Veronika waits patiently and sends letters on a regular basis. After her home is attacked, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, where she meets a relative with his own agenda.
Ballad Of A Soldier (1959)
During World War II, a devout young Russian soldier named Alyosha Skvortsov (Volodya Ivashov) is granted a brief leave of absence for committing a heroic act on the battlefield. He chooses to pay a visit to his mother since he feels homesick. Alyosha, on the other hand, is frequently diverted by his efforts to aid individuals he meets, including a charming girl named Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko). During his tour of a war-torn country, he fights to keep optimism alive.
Come And See (1985)
The German attack of a village in Byelorussia drives young Florya (Aleksey Kravchenko) into the forest, against his family's wishes, to join the exhausted Resistance fighters. He meets Glasha (Olga Mironova), a girl who follows him back to his village. Florya returns home to discover his family and other peasants slaughtered. His continuous existence in the middle of the cruel wreckage of war becomes increasingly terrifying, a fight between despair and hope.
White Tiger (2012)
As Soviet soldiers marched on Berlin after months of horrific battle, a German tank called the White Tiger came out of nowhere, causing dread before vanishing into the mist. After narrowly escaping combat with the enigmatic, ghostly-White Tiger tank, Red Army Sergeant Ivan Naydenov becomes obsessed with destroying it.
T34 (2018)
If World War I was the trench war, World War II was the tank war. The T34, a treasured symbol among Russians, was the USSR's war-winning tank. It lacked the firepower and optics of the greatest German tanks but outweighed them in terms of manoeuvrability, power, dependability, and ease of production. This exhilarating, rattling, new-wave, big-budget Russian combat film uses CGI and video-game technology to demonstrate, in slow motion, what occurs when a shell hits armour. Surprisingly, the concept – Soviet POWs fleeing Germany in a T34 — is based on a genuine occurrence, except the vehicle was taken by a Soviet POW was a German bomber, not a tank.
