While this isn't my favorite soviet WWII film (that would be the simple and super-effective BALLAD OF A SOLDIER),it is exceptional and well worth seeing.

Veronika and Boris are young and in love. Unfortunately, just before they marry, WWII comes along and despite their plans, Boris responds to the call of duty and volunteers to fight. They are both heartbroken, but duty is duty. Shortly after this, Veronika's parents are killed in an air raid, so she moves in with Boris' family.

At this point, the movie becomes a bit confusing and this is one case where I really wish the film had been more explicit. Boris' no-good cousin is living at the apartment along with the family and during an air raid, he attacks Veronika and begins kissing her despite her protests. Then, inexplicably, in the next scene they announce they are getting married! Either he won her over with passion or he raped her and she oddly felt that since he violated her she should marry him (that's twisted logic). It makes a big difference--if she just lost interest in Boris that easily, it really doesn't make sense since they were so in love and after marrying, she acts like she loves him as much as ever. But, if she was raped, she is a far more sympathetic and tragic figure.

Now apart from that, the movie is marvelous. The camera-work (especially when Boris is shot and he is imagining the wedding that never was),acting and production was amazing. So much so, by the end I really had to fight back the tears (after all, I'm a guy and guys NEVER let themselves cry,...except when Jim Brown gets killed in THE DIRTY DOZEN). A very loving and beautiful film that greatly humanizes the face and cost of war.

This film really grew on me. It tells the story of a young man who goes off to war, filled with desire to become a hero and defend mother Russia. He leaves behind a young woman who adores him but is never able to tell him. What happens here is what happens so often. She gives up hope of ever seeing him and ends up married to a man who has had designs on her and whom she actually hates.. What's worse, he rapes her in a building that is being bombed by German aircraft. The "glory" of war is shown for what it is: the human tendency to kill its children while the decision makers sit an pontificate. This is so poignant, so human, and it gives us no winners. By the way, the camera is the star of this movie. The battle scenes take us plodding through the mud, facing death at every turn. It carries us through the masses as they see their heroes off to battle. It shows us graphically the obstructions thrown up by war as they diminish the human condition.

more than a movie, it is a special experience. more than part of a period, it is a form of revelation. for extraordinaries images. for splendid shots. for the simple story. for drama. for the delicacy for present a profound tragedy. for the acting. to see The Cranes are flying is an event. for soul. and for the mind. a travel in time. and rediscover the basic values who defines each life. it is difficult to define it . because it is not only beautiful or seductive, touching or impressive. it is a honest testimony, a kind of window in the Soviet regime's gray reality. a film about love and about war. about innocence. and about survey. about the existence as drawing used the basic colors. see it ! for discover a new frame for your life. and new meanings for every day fights.