A compellingly deep and dark hunt for a serial child killer

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2016)

Take grim times, the Soviet regime, add in child killings, Party politics, corruption, brutality, betrayal and Nazi leftovers, stir well, add plentiful quality actors, a stupendously good script, superbly dark and atmospheric cinematography and you have a ridiculously good film, whose only failing is it's muddled up language - it could have been subtitled throughout or English throughout but not mixed up in places.
The acting is superb, with a hat full of memorable lines, plot twists and turns, love, hate and deception heaped into each other. The story takes a while to fall into place but, by the end, it all makes perfect sense, a tribute to the way the film is allowed to unfold in real time.
I am going to see it for a second time and I am hoping to look out for things I may have missed first time around. It really is a must see film.