The Ballad of a Soldier

7.5. Classic Russian ‘Great Patriotic War’ movie in which after incredible bravery our hero is given 1 week leave to go and see his mother but is held up along the way by all kinds of diversions. Its vision of war is obviously completely inauthentic and the pristine perfection of its hero starts to create something of a credibility gap but the brilliant series of situation and character vignettes along the way more than make up for this.