One of the Most Unnerving Films I have Scene in a While

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2009)

This film was heartbreaking in the way it showed this wide eyed, child turn into an old man due to the violence and cruelty he witnesses. The expressions on his face as the movie progresses go beyond make up and it's clear that his soul, as well as his face, age drastically through each horrific experience he has to endure. The film made me feel anxious, especially the scene where Florya and Glasha are left behind as the rebels march off to ATTEMPT to battle and defeat the Germans. As soon as the bombs go off and we, as the audience, hear as Florya hear, the ringing and terror and isolation set in. It made me feel as though I were experiencing it firsthand for myself. It only got more intense for me as the movie goes on. It had a crazed, manic feel to it, and I couldn't stand Glasha's insanity, I truly despised her character. Two of the most horrific scenes for me, were when Glasha and Florya return to his village and Glasha looks back to see almost the entire population of the small community massacred, with their bodies piled on top one another like animals. That scene was nothing however, to the image of the young blonde woman who, in another doomed village, had been gang raped by the German soldiers after she had been dragged by the hair into the back of their military vehicle. I will never forget the image of that woman walking awkwardly toward Florya while blowing a whistle hanging out of her mouth, with blood running down her legs and her mouth bruised and bloody. I couldn't help but think that her fellow neighbors had had a more merciful death burning with each other in the town hall. Seeing her, all alone, completely out of it and obviously not being able to process what had just happened to her was too much to bear. All I could think as I watched this scene was that at least they had died with each other, and here was this poor woman, who had not only been repeatedly violated, but had been witness to her children, neighbors and family murdered, and it is she that is one of the only ones left alive, albeit barely, to bear the burden of these losses.