The Heron and the Crane
Shorts Showcase: miniature masterpieces from the Klassiki collection
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10m
Directed by Yuri Norstein • 1974 • USSR/Russia
The Heron and the Crane is a humorous little tale of amorous indecision and self-destruction from animator supreme Yuri Norstein. The titular animals are engaged in a dance of romantic attraction and rejection, whimsical but melancholy. A collaboration with his wife, the artist Francesca Yarbusova, and cameraman Aleksandr Zhukovsky, with whom he would go on to make classics Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales, this early short was the first real sounding of Norstein’s mature genius.
THE HERON AND THE CRANE • ЦАПЛЯ И ЖУРАВЛЬ
Directed by Yuri Norstein
Written by Roman Kachanov
Cinematographer by Aleksandr Zhukovsky
Narrated by Innokenty Smoktunovsky
In Russian with English subtitles
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