Freedom begins with the Act of "Defiance"

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2017)

Year 1941; World War-II at its height. The Nazis invaded Belarus and swept entire towns of Jews - liquidating and deporting many to concentration camps. "Freedom" was reduced to shreds; yet to reattain, it all began with the act of Defiance
Recently orphaned in the carnage, the four Beilski brothers took refuge in the forests; only to know that hundreds like them, were scattered all over. The eldest two - Tuvia and Zus - soon realised that a more concrete settlement would be needed, citing the increasing numbers of their exiles. Makeshift huts came up first, followed by those sneaky "food missions". Thus, those stranded ones grew into an armed brigade ("otriad").
A "communally-functioning-camp", individuals worked for the survival of all while living with the strict rationing in food, medicines, clothes, and even reproduction. Their lives constantly at threat of being caught or killed-in-action, didn't stop the Beilski Otriad to join the resistant Soviet Red Army against the Third Reich.
When Jews were considered best at surrendering and dying, that frail clique resisted by living. Moses didn't, but they themselves hand- in-hand parted their waters, with "courage as their ultimate weapon".
Good casting choices of Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and the ensemble, to enact a lesser known sequence of events in this biographical-war-drama by Edward Zwick ("Blood Diamonds"), amidst his signature action-choreography and Oscar nominated civil-scoring by James Newton Howard ("The Hunger Games") makes it a fair watch for anyone interested in a different side of history.
Rating - 7/10.