Peace to Him Who Enters

Plot

Lieutenant Ivlev from the Red Army who has just graduated from school, arrives for duty in Berlin a few days before the surrender of Germany in World War II. In the city destroyed by conflict, the soldiers find a pregnant woman, a German. The commanders of their division decide to help her get to the hospital. Lieutenant Ivlev is charged to accompany the pregnant German woman to the rear, giving him a chauffeur and a shell-shocked soldier, who also need to be sent to the hospital. Thus, senior officers want to save the new lieutenant from possible destruction in Berlin at the end of the war.

As a result of the long and arduous journey, the protagonist has matured and become a completely different person. Along with the driver, a soldier of the American army he met along the way, they help the German woman, bringing her to a safe place. The war ends, marked by the birth of a baby in a new, peaceful world. The final shot is of a newborn infant urinating on a pile of now unnecessary, discarded weapons.

Cast

Awards

The film received the Special Jury Prize for Best Director and the Pasinetti Award (prize of Italian critics for the best foreign film) at the 22nd Venice International Film Festival.