Painful but unforgettable

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2012)

Come and See is a movie I'll never forget - because it attacked my senses for almost 2.5 hours. Jarring sounds pierced my ears and made me uncomfortable, gruesome images in brown and grey burned their way onto my memory. I felt cold, felt hungry, felt hurt (not just emotionally, but physically) as I watched the story unfold. I was smelling and tasting the thick, rancid air that fill the space between dead bodies and burnt wood, and from the start I longed for it to be over -- but I'm glad I saw it, and wouldn't have wanted it to be any shorter or less graphic.
Elem Klimoff paints a very true picture of the devastation war brings that I think we all should see. Set in 1943, this movie tells the story of a village (one of 628) in Byelorussia that was mercilessly destroyed by German soldiers during World War 2. It is a tale of the slow torture to the soul a village boy endures after he joins the fight against the Germans trespassers. In an ironic exchange for witnessing pain, suffering and death at every turn, he gets to keep his life – forever marred by the fact that his family, the rest of his village, and many other innocent people he came to know were brutally massacred.
Though this movie is specifically about the Nazi invasion of Byelorussia, it applies to any and all wars. It shows war for what it is for most – not some glorious battle of strength and manhood, but an intensely painful period of suffering and confusion with irreparable consequences. Come and See is a very powerful and honest depiction of war, and a truly brilliant film in the way it uses each of the senses to stir up raw emotion inside of the viewer.