Horrors of war unlike anything you've ever seen

Rating: Null/10 (5 April 2020)

It took director Elem Klimov eight years to get approval for this film. And it ended up being his last one. He was tapped out, done, out of ideas. He felt like he had nothing left to give.
I can see why.
Come and See is a historical anti-war film based on real events in Belarus under the onslaught of Nazi Germany. Our focal character is Flyora (Aleksey Kravchenko), a farm boy, who joins the partisan movement to oppose the Germans. Through his eyes we witness the atrocities committed by the Germans and witness horrors unlike anything I've ever seen on film screen.
Klimov mixes horrifying, brutal hyperrealism with surrealism. Extreme close-ups, literal wading through mud, blood and human remains, gruesome battle wounds and people being burned alive are from time to time interwoven with almost dreamlike visions and long takes of fleeting serenity. This sounds artsy, but it actually works to bring all the horrors into even starker contrast.
That being said, the violence, brutality and sheer horror do go so far in this film that at least I ended up becoming detached. I knew it was real and that these war crimes had really occurred in Belarus - the film is noted for its historical accuracy - but at some point I simply checked out. Which in some way makes it that much worse.
It is a great film. A terrible, horrifying, nightmarish film. But great.