Awesome, haunting, horrifying

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2006)

I habitually use the IMDb to find treasures I might not have seen in my day-to-day movie watching, but am rarely as pleased as I was when I found this film.
Come and See is the story of a young man who joins the Byelorussian partisans in their resistance to the invading fascist hordes during World War II. The title comes from the Book of Revelations, according to the director in an introductory interviewed contained in the two-disc DVD I saw.
The film is based on a group of incidents observed by A. Adamovich during his youth. Director Klimov also grew up during the Patriotic War, but in the Stalingrad area.
Filmed exclusively in Byelorussia, the movie has a wonderful feeling of versimilitude, due to the real locations, the naturalistic acting, the wonderful costumes (many of which are authentic WWII issue uniforms, apparently), and the overall somber tone. Special effects are minimal, most are "in camera." Most effective of all may be the scene in which the boy hero and his mentor steal a cow and are then shot at by the Germans -- who are never seen until the final forty minutes or so of the film.
Highly recommended, especially if your notion of the War on the Eastern Front is derived from "Hogan's Heroes" reruns -- with the comedic threats of getting Sergeant Schultz sent to the Eastern Front as punishment. Even _Stalingrad_ was not as gritty and real as this film.