Yevgeniya Lyzhina

Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Veronika attend le retour de son fiancé Boris, parti sur le front. Sans nouvelle, elle cède aux avances du cousin de celui-ci, un planqué peu glorieux, égoïste et distant. Délaissée, Veronika s’implique à sa manière dans le conflit en investissant son énergie pour l’aide et le réconfort des soldats blessés rapatriés au pays. Elle prend conscience de l’horreur de la guerre. Palme d'Or 1957.

1944 Sergeant Vasily Kalina returns to his native village of Pastoron after the hospital. But he does not find the village: retreating, the Germans burned all the houses and mined the fields. The restoration of the economy is led by the former commander of the partisan detachment Grigory Gorovoy. He appoints Vasily as the chairman of the collective farm. Soon Kalina learns that Claudia, whom he loved before the war, considering him dead, married Gorovoy. The current situation is not an easy test for all three...