High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Cranes Are Flying (Russian: Летят журавли, translit. Letyat zhuravli) is a Soviet film about World War II. It depicts the cruelty of war and the damage suffered to the Soviet psyche as a result of World War II (known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War). It was directed at Mosfilm by the Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov in 1957 and stars Aleksey Batalov and Tatiana Samoilova. It won the Palme d`Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, the only Soviet film to win that award, although The Turning Point (1946) was one of eleven films awarded that year`s Grand Prix, the predecessor of the Palme d`Or.