Not your average Hollywood war film.

Rating: 10/10 (24 July 2012)

Before viewing this film, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew it was not going to be like many of the other war movies out there. So many of the American war movies lean so much closer to the formalism aspect of the scale compared to realism, and as many say they are so "Hollywood". Klimov did an amazing job of keeping his film out of that category. I have never really been able to empathize with characters in a war movie the way I have with this film. It was not so much that I have personally endured what Flyora went through, but that he was such a young boy being forced into a grown world. I think the part of this film that affected me so much was watching this boy age physically and mentally so much in such a short period of time. The visual aspect of Flyora's transformation really hit me as the viewer emotionally. Comparing him from the start of the film as a fairly healthy and happy young boy, to a white haired, bags under his eyes, wrinkled boy who's soul has been sucked out of him, is hard to accept even just as a viewer to this movie. This film was so realistic, with no CGI and rawness, it seeped into my thoughts more so than many Hollywood films I have ever seen.