By far, one of the greatest war movies.

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2012)

I'm not a fan of war, but I'm a fan of watching war movies and not for it's extreme violence, more so for its historical education and cultural value.
Klimov's storytelling is electrifying and a breathe of fresh air in portraying intricate and disconcerting content in a way that touches upon humanity. I have no idea what it was like to be part of a war as such, i can only imagine and yet without physically being there, as Americans we are so blinded by what really goes on out there in the world.
It's haunting to watch silly uniformed men with a little power take advantage, rob and ridicule people relentlessly for being Jewish. I found myself angry at times when watching this happen. Seeing fools being condoned for bad behavior because they are on the dominating side of war. It's cruel and bullying, yet it's probably true to what really happened out there.
And the protagonist Flor, who we follow through this journey, a boy caught up in the war trying to survive. The cinematic moments and dramatic pauses capture and bring the audience into Flor's every emotion turn. Just when you think it's over, it continues, another day of war, another day trying to survive. It's ugly and brutal.
It's heartbreaking to watch the German soldiers come in like Gods and have power over a culture of people stripping them off all their rights. I was angry when I saw the soldiers come in and eat their food, take their belongings all while the villagers watched in hopes that there weren't chosen to be exterminated. Horrific.
One of my favorite moments in the film is when Flor and Glasha are playing out in the rain despite being on the run for their lives. The most daunting is watching people being burnt alive while German soldiers make mockery of the happening. And watching Flor's face and his inner psychological torment happening. It's hard to look at this film and say that it is beautiful and unique to some of its other war movie counterparts but this movie is real and beautiful in every spoken sense of the word.
The score, along with the sound design, the editing, and the actor's performance is astonishing. The director's vision and storytelling is amazing, a true storyteller.
The ending is a true masterpiece in an attempt to try and erase this massacre from history but it's really hard to ever forget what happened. The real live footage of this genocide and the filmmaker's interpretation is genius. Really one of the most engaging war movies I've every seen, but not for the faint of heart.