Encounter at the Elbe (1949)

Encounter at the Elbe (Russian: Встреча на Эльбе, romanized: Vstrecha na Elbe) is a Soviet war film released in 1949 from Mosfilm, describing the conflict, spying, and collaboration between the Soviet Army advancing from the east and the U.S. Army advancing from the west. The two allied forces met each other for the first time on the River Elbe near the end of the World War II. This meeting occurred on April 25, 1945, which was usually remembered as “Elbe Day” in Western Bloc nations and as the "Encounter at the Elbe” in Eastern Bloc nations.

The film was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, with music by Dmitri Shostakovich, which included “Yearning for the Homeland” (in Russian: Тоска по родине, the words by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky), that became popular at that time in the Eastern Bloc nations and among the leftists in the Western Bloc nations, including Japan.