Almost unwatchable

Rating: 3/10 (29 February 2020)

I have never been in a war zone, and am poorly informed about the horrors experienced by the Soviet people at the hands of the Nazis. Doubtless I have much to learn, but could not learn it from this film.
This movie, which is like a parody of a late Goya painting set in the forests and villages of Russia, was very hard to watch. The difficulty is not so much the brutality of the events depicted as the relentless overacting and completely unnatural performances of the actors. Everyone behaves as if they were psychotic in almost every scene, and the camera is often positioned right in front of their faces. Their expressions are, like their mannerisms, so over the top as to make the film difficult to take seriously. As if this weren't enough, the music -- interspersed with snippets of military songs or anthems -- continually makes the emphatic statement IN ALL CAPS that we are watching crazy people enduring unbearable conditions.
To my way of thinking, this film is trying much too hard to make its point. I felt that it could have said much more, with much less. Even the film's length, at nearly 2 1/2 hours long, goes overboard; it could have benefited from some serious editing. Bludgeoning its audience, it mistakes brute force for tragedy, falling well short of its own ambitions.