Go and Look

Rating: 8/10 (11 May 2020)

'Come and See' is a beautiful movie. In the sense that it is beautifully shot and directed, but there is not much beauty in the story itself. This is probably the most devastating (war) movie I have ever experienced. That's right, you can't just see it, you experience it. The film puts its main character through such adversities and never gives any hope for things to turn better. Seemingly lighthearted scenes are sent by Oleg Yanchenko's ominous score that foreshadows the horrors coming. Even more horrifying than the brutal scenes of violence is the way we see the teenage boy grow older with one summer. At the beginning we see a young boy full of life, ready to protect his land, and by the end we only see grey and scarred human wreck. And not only physically - just look at those eyes of the boy, and how the life has been sucked out from them. The inexperience of the young actor is quite clear in some scenes in the beginning, but altogether, it is some remarkable acting. I guess the fact that the film was shot in sequence helped to improve his role. Almost like he grew with the character he portrayed. Not so fun fact - when the filming was finished, Aleksey Kravchenko's real hair had turned grey from the excruciating shooting period.
The visual style of the film is astonishing. I'm always overwhelmed by the ability of Russian directors to use vivid dreamlike visuals to bring the horrors of the war onto the silver screen. In this case 'Come and See' is a prime example. The scenes in the forest between Flyora and Glasha (Olga Mironova) seem like they belong into some other movie (or into some other genre altogether), yet they are properly placed. Different genres and styles are perfectly woven together in this visual poem about how the horrors of war can ravage a human soul.