Ballad of a soldier | DRAMA | FULL MOVIE

★ BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source (1962); Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay (1961)

Given a few days' leave to see his mother, a young soldier spends nearly all of it helping strangers he meets on the way home. Grigori Chukhrai keeps combat almost entirely off screen and measures the war in the hours it takes from an ordinary boy.

Why it's free: Free on Mosfilm's own channel; Mosfilm holds the rights to the Soviet-era library it publishes.