| Brief Description: | This towering, cathartic experience won the Grand Prize at the Moscow Film Festival. The story is based on writer Ales Adamovich's WWII memoirs of SS reprisals against partisans. Set in occupied Byelorussia in 1943, the film follows a raw teenager into the swamps and forests of the border provinces, where he undergoes a hell of atrocities, becoming a middle-aged wreck as he tries to survive the carnage. Remarkable acting, camera work, crowd scenes and direction raise the film far beyond anything comparable, as director Elem Klimov manages both a savage beauty and an impassioned elegy in this anti-war film. "It's a masterpiece not only of filmmaking, but of humanity itself" (Sean Penn). In Russian with English subtitles.
Two DVD-set. Includes subtitle options in 13 different languages, interviews with cast and crew, production stills gallery, and two archival segments: "Partisans in Belarus" and "Nazi Brutalities."
Elem Klimov
USSR
1985
142 mins. |
