A powerful and haunting film about a brutal regime!

Rating: 9/10 (2 September 2015)

Every once in a while a movie comes along which reminds the world of a place long forgotten, an unsettling piece of our history. This is what 'Child 44' does as it portrays the brutality of the communist regime of the Soviet Union post second world war. The film is based on a disgraced military officer's search for a serial killer who the authorities fail to accept actually exists. The film is not based on the manhunt but more on the communist values of the USSR and the plight of the poor victims. Tom Hardy and Naomi Rapace deliver towering performances as they face their own struggles as well as a desperate search for the truth. The film is tense and bleak, where something disastrous could happen at any turn and that is the fear the movie successfully transfers to the viewer. The setting is dull and the pace of the movie is slow but this gives the movie a haunting look. The film could not have had a more refined cast with the likes of Tom Hardy, Naomi Rapace and Gary Oldman at work with an intelligent script that never loses it's focus. The critics fail to understand what the movie is trying to portray and the truth is that we have got use to high octane action sequences, dramatic shootouts and explosive characters. With 'Child 44', we have an honest and powerful tale of a brutal regime that shut itself off from the world and believed they had created 'paradise'. @zulfmanauthor