Berlinale fest to screen Soviet Georgian filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1957 classic

Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov’s acclaimed 1957 feature The Cranes Are Flying will be among seven cinema classics to be screened at the upcoming Berlinale Film Festival next month.

The postwar drama, which claimed the principal award of the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, will be part of the Berlinale Classics section at the major festival.

The section will showcase digitally restored versions of seven classic films "to celebrate their world premieres".

Made during the period of liberalisation that followed Joseph Stalin’s death, this unusual black-and-white film’s expressionist images tell the tragic story of two lovers after Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union", said a preview from Berlinale.

Filmed by Tbilisi-born Kalatozov (born Mikheil Kalatozishvili), the drama cast Soviet cinema stars Tatiana Samoilova and Aleksey Batalov and went on to claim a number of other international prizes beside the Cannes honour.

The Cranes Are Flying was recently restored at Russia's Mosfilm studio under the management of its general director Karen Shakhnazarov.

Born in 1903, Kalatozov studied at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts starting in 1933 and headed the Georgian Film studio in 1936.

Because vintage never runs out of style, seven old masterpieces in digitally restored versions will celebrate their World Premieres at #BerlinaleClassics:https://t.co/z2Fb5n8N3epic.twitter.com/iAF8298q1K

— Berlinale (@berlinale) January 16, 2018

The filmmaker later worked at the Lenfilm studio in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and also served as cultural attache at the Soviet Embassy in the United States.

A director of over a dozen films from 1928-1969, Kalatozov was awarded the prestigious title of the People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1969.

The filmmaker died in Moscow in 1973. His legacy is now continued by the Mikhail Kalatozov Fund, established by his grandson and serving to preserve cinema works.

This year's Berlinale festival will run from February 15-25, with the full program of the event being unveiled in parts.

Emerging director Ana Urushadze’s award-winning debut feature Scary Mother will open the Berlin Critics’ Week, a program of debate on cinema held during the festival.