Word: ivashov
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Dates: during 1961-1961
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Ballad is about a young soldier, Alyosha (Vladimir Ivashov), who becomes a hero almost by accident, and is given leave to visit his mother. On his way home on the chaotic Russian railroads he helps an amputee who is ashamed to return to his wife, delivers some soap to another soldier's unfaithful wife, and meets Shura (Shanna Prokhorenko), a girl who stows away in the beggage car he is riding in. Shura tells him that she already has a sweetheart, and after their adventures together confesses that this was a lie. They part, and Alyosha realizes too late that...
Alyosha is very nearly a stock hero. Certainly he possesses all the deadly virtues. But Ivashov plays the role gently, with humor (shrewdly bribing an officiously corrupt train guard, telling white lies to the father of the soldier whose wife is unfaithful), and humanity (when as last he meets his mother they squander their moment together in awkward small talk); he is convincing. Shura's part is acted with purity and directness. This young Russian actress has a face so lovely that I didn't even resent Alyosha's soppy flashback memories...
When the Russian soldier (Vladimir Ivashov) can run no more, he falls in a foxhole, finds a bazooka there, turns it on the pursuing tank, destroys it and another one too. Offered a medal, the hero-who is only 19 years old-begs leave instead to go home and see his mother. His journey is the thread on which three luminous episodes are strung...