One Paragraph Movie Review: Come and See

Two hundred and forty-ninth film: Idi I Smotri, or ‘Come and See’ in its native Russian. This is — after the first forty-five minutes of slightly odd, slightly slow set-up, a compellingly horrific film about Nazis invading and occupying Byelorussia, just north of Ukraine. Based on actual accounts of war crimes committed by the Nazis, it follows the teenage Florya from his fervour for enlistment through to his hollow-eyed horror at the pointy depths of human cruelty and violence. Every review of this film mentions its intense and relentless brutality and its lack of gloss or hope. Every review is right. Plonk on top director Elem Klimov’s technique of getting actors to stare directly down the lens into the back of your skull and you have a deeply upsetting two and a bit hours that you should see and should definitely, absolutely not see. Jeeeeeeeeeeez. Three and a half badly damaged Hitler portraits out of five.