The dullest war film ever ?

Rating: 2/10 (23 October 2006)

A war movie should educate the viewer in any of a number of ways. We should appreciate courage and sacrifice, we should empathise with the cold, hungry and terrified. We should be told about historical events and their impact on the final outcome.
This film sent me to sleep during the first 60 minutes. Time that should have been spent providing some base detail about Floryan's life was spent with long shots of expressionless faces and inconsequential wildlife. I tried hard to see the relevance but it escaped me. As a result I did not bond with the lead characters.
The tuneless soundtrack was delivered at such a level that I couldn't make out the most important bits of dialogue. I had to switch on the subtitles to follow the story. I say follow the story but I'm not sure it had one. It was more a jigsaw of loosely connected events. I was unable to reconcile one scene with another. You find yourself asking " How did he get there" and " Where did so and so disappear to" The DVD blurb mentions the movie having "realistic battle scenes". Nonsense - there isn't a single battle scene where you see the Belorussians v the Nazi's in a conventional fight.
The blurb also states that " this is a film that Hollywood would never make". I agree, it wouldn't make any money.
This film contains nothing that hasn't been done before.
The only reason I give this two stars is that the film educated me about the Belorussian landscape.
Most disappointed !