The Battle of Kursk has been the subject of at least one film - in the mid-70's, I saw (here in the US) a then-new Russian-made feature-length film about Kursk. It was a full-scale, dramatic recreation of the battle, filmed in color, for a theatrical audience. I only saw it once, but I remember it was filmed on terrain very similar to (if not actually on) the battleground around Kursk and thus was very convincing in its setting (unlike "Green Berets" filmed in Georgia USA!). I do remember there were 'Tigers' in the movie, though obviously reconstructions but well done. Although I don't remember the title (probably "Kursk"), I haven't seen it included among lists of European war films. Anyone else seen this? Wonder if it is available for DVD? This also reminds me of another Russian war film I saw in the early '70s on US "educational" television. It was a b/w movie, which appeared to be made in the '50s or '60s, about a young Russian soldier home on leave from the front. I can't remember much of the plot other than that he was a good son and had a close relationship with his mother. The movie had a foreboding sense about his ultimate fate. The part I remember most was his close encounter with a German tank (a Tiger, I think) after he returned to the front. Again, can't remember the title, but it was an interesting movie - it just tried to tell about a small portion of the war rather than the 'big picture', and was better in some respects than most of Hollywood's attempts at telling the story of WWII. Does anyone recognize this one too?
I don't recognize either, but the description of the last movie strongly reminds me of the way of showing war like the German 1950s movie "Die Brücke". Have you seen that one?
Woohoo. I found out the name of the Russian movie about the young soldier on leave - in another thread under this section (about the best World War II movies), someone mentioned "Ballad of a Soldier," and that's it ! It was made in 1960, and is available on DVD from Amazon. Now, if I can only find out the name of that Kursk movie ...