Utterly stunning in its mesmerizing storytelling

Rating: 10/10 (8 August 2009)

Elem Klimov's "Come and See" is possibly the most moving film I have ever seen. As a war movie, it is unique in its genre in my opinion. It engages the audience with all five senses in its nightmarish reality. The war came to life right in front of my eyes. When the first bombs erupted around Florya and Glasha, the use of sound made me feel like I was right there. I smelled the rotting bodies when Florya came back to his hometown and all he saw was flies and bowls of soup. I felt the slimy grip of the marshes when he dragged Glasha through them as he fought the idea that his entire family was dead. During the most harrowing and excruciatingly miserable part of the movie, when the Russian village was burned to the ground with the people inside, I felt the fear and pain and panicked helplessness. I wanted to cry out, to scream, to run. In the burning farmhouse, I wanted to claw my way out. I felt the terrifying responsibility of having to decide whether to take the chance to jump out the window or risk staying inside. My throat was dry, my body went from hot to cold to hot again. I shivered and I felt the burn of heat. While the disconcerting use of close-ups made it almost painfully intimate, the movie was all the more haunting because Florya was only one of thousands experiencing the same and worse. By the time Florya was shooting the picture of Hitler and using his gun for the first time, I felt battered and burned, exhausted and deeply disturbed, but also oddly satisfied. Though shooting Hitler's picture was just a symbol, it really made me think. What if Hitler had been killed as a baby? Would that be wrong? It made the film feel more well-rounded. I felt like I'd lived an entire lifetime in the space of a few hours. It was a truly remarkable film. I've never seen anything like it, and I don't think I ever will again.