Not for the faint of heart, but of incredible importance

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2012)

This was probably the most intense movie-watching experience I have ever had. Not once has any other movie been able to captivate and shock and make me feel the way this movie has.
The movie tells the story of a young Belorussian boy who becomes a soldier in World War 2 - and it is everything other than what he would have expected it to be.
The story begins with two excited kids playing war, looking for and grabbing out a gun. This is the trigger for soldiers coming to the boy's family's house and taking him to recruit him as a soldier. While we see the devastated and crying mother with his two sisters, Flor excitedly goes along with the soldiers.
However, when the soldiers go out on their mission, he and a girl get left behind. Soon, they become witnesses to their old campsite being bombarded, and Germans invading the forest. Together, they try to run away - to Flor's family's home. When they get to the village, they find it deserted. Flor believes his family to be on a little island, to which he makes his way, the girl however sees a pile of dead bodies behind the shed, and realizes the tragic fate of the villagers, however cannot tell him.
On the island, they run into a man who leads them into a field where the people are hiding. In hopes of making it to the store and bringing back food, a troop of four people, three men and Flor, go on their way. Two of them get killed by mines, and Flor and Rubezh go along by themselves. They come to a farmer's house and steal his cow. On the way back however, Rubezh and the cow get killed. Flor is being picked up by another farmer and taken to his house.
Here, Flor has his first real encounter with German soldiers. They force the whole village into a house, and ask anybody without kids to come out. This way Flor and another girl escape, and they become witness to the house being set on fire with the whole village captured inside and being burnt alive.
Flor sees the girl, after being raped, walking back, but having lost all his humanity, he doesn't go to help her. Instead, he helps some other villagers, who captured some of the German soldiers (and even some Russian collaborates), to shoot them and then burn their bodies. Then he savagely shoots a picture of Hitler.
The movie ends with Flor following the group of men going into battle.
This was the most extreme experience I have ever had when watching a movie. The movie seems so close and real, and it manages to involve all senses. It is an unusual and probably the most closest-to-reality depiction of war which you will probably never forget.
Following Flor on his way, experiencing everything through his eyes and senses, is shocking and devastating, and we feel as affected by everything that is happening as Flor does.
The images we are presented with are so real, and the movie excels as making us as paranoid as Flor when we hear the sound of motors coming closer. Also the fact that Klimov did not use any special affects makes everything seem incredibly and shockingly real and (too) close.
This is not a usual war movie. It does not in any way show heroic Russian soldiers. In opposite, it is the devastating story of what the war felt like for the civilians, and it affects the viewer to an extreme point. I believe this movie lingers in the heads of those who have seen it for a long time - it affects you emotionally, and lets you see once again how incredibly devastating war is. And it makes you ask once again: WHY do people do this to each other?!
An incredible and shocking movie-journey, which everybody should take. This movie will leave you changed, but I think it's important for everyone to see. Though it is intense, and I often felt like I couldn't take it anymore, I can only recommend seeing this movie! In fact, I hope everybody does.