Haunting and harrowing, but also deeply moving.

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2020)

Come and See (1985) is one of those rare films that has the potential to shake one to their core. The film follows a young boy who digs up a rifle and is inadvertently thrust into World War II during the initial stages of Nazi Germany's invasion of Belarus. The film depicts many of Nazi Germany's horrific war crimes in the region including setting people on fire with gasoline and rounding up entire villages to be shot or burned. While the vast scale of Nazi Germany's atrocities are widely understood today, it is still deeply haunting to witness these atrocities on film. By the end of the film, the viewer will feel as they have aged considerably after witnessing such horrific deeds. Even the young boy ages on-screen. By the climax of the film, the young boy who was so hopeful and energetic at the beginning of the film is nearly unrecognizable and the viewers are left with a grim reminder of what happened when German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union during World War II.