The Alive and the Dead is a 1964 Soviet film directed by Aleksandr Stolper based on the eponymous 1959 novel The Living and the Dead by Konstantin Simonov.

Plot

The film takes place in a time warp from the first days of the Great Patriotic War and until the middle of the winter of 1941–1942, before the beginning of the Soviet counterattack near Moscow. Ivan Sintsov (Kirill Lavrov) is a correspondent with an army newspaper. The war starts while he is on vacation with his wife. He tries to return to his unit which is located in Western Belarus. However, it is impossible since the unit is overrun by the advancing Wehrmacht. Near the town of Borisov, he meets another officer also trying to reach his unit. They go on a road and try to get a car going in the direction they need. As the other officer stopped the car, a German air raid starts. The direct hit blows up the officer and the car he stops. Sintsov continues his journey alone. He is eventually assigned to one military newspaper, located in Mogilev and, later, another near Yelnia. The movie describes his work as a war correspondent during these trying times.