Letyat zhuravli) is a 1957 Soviet war drama film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov at Mosfilm, written by Viktor Rozov, and starring Aleksey Batalov and Tatiana Samoilova.

[a] In Moscow, on June 22, 1941, Veronika and her boyfriend Boris watch cranes fly over the city as the sun rises and then sneak back into their families' apartments.

Veronika remains in Moscow with her parents, who are killed in a German air raid that also destroys their apartment building.

Veronika works as a nurse in a military hospital run by Boris's father, Fyodor.

When a soldier in the hospital becomes hysterical after receiving a letter saying his girlfriend left him for someone else, Veronika rushes to get Fyodor, who is processing the arrival of wounded troops.

Boris's sister Irina spitefully tells Veronika that Mark is giving the toy to his mistress at her birthday party.

When Boris’s unit returns, Veronika carries a huge bouquet of flowers, intends to give them to him, and hunts for him and his friend Stepan during a celebration at the train station.

As Stepan gives a rousing speech, asserting that those who died in the war will never be forgotten, Veronika goes from grieving to handing out her flowers to the returning soldiers and their families.

As the film scholar Josephine Woll observes, the protagonist Veronika was instrumental in shaping post-Stalin Soviet movies by heralding more complicated multi-dimensional celluloid heroines and focusing on the impact of war on common people.

The lead actress of Cranes, Tatiana Samoilova, who was frequently identified with her role, took Europe by storm.

The gift featured the inscription: "Finally we see on the Soviet screen a face, not a mask".

"[6] In his autobiography, he lists the film in his “cinema pantheon”, alongside Citizen Kane and Napoléon.