The atrocities of the Nazis in WWII as seen by a Belarusian teenager

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 1999)

This award-winning movie may become a real eye-opener for overseas audience. Apart from "Saving Private Ryan" American cinematography for the most part ignored the other side of WWII.
"Idi i smotri" shows the German occupation in Belarus through the eyes of a teenager. His village gets burned, his relatives get massacred, he becomes the witness of many other atrocities, joins underground partisan group.
The movie is very similar to "Saving Private Ryan" in that it shows the grim, the real face of the war. Yet it is quite different from Spielberg's masterpiece for it does not really show the happy ending, the way out, but rather leaves the reader to ponder over these tragic days.