When German forces invade a village in Byelorussia, a young boy defies his family’s wishes and flees into the forest to join the exhausted Resistance fighters. Armed with a discarded rifle, he is thrust into the brutal reality of the Soviet Union’s fight against the Nazis, witnessing unimaginable horrors along the way. Elem Klimov’s harrowing masterpiece is one of the most shocking portrayals of World War II – a visceral, unflinching depiction of war’s dehumanising terror and perhaps the most powerful antiwar film ever made.

Both screenings feature an introduction by film critic Anton Bitel.

Reviews

‘A relentless masterpiece, and a brilliant study of the cause and effect nature of brutality.’
★★★★★
Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine

‘By telling the story from a child’s perspective, Klimov gives the horrors of war a new kind of immediacy. Not one born from stern men turned tragically hollow, but from a pure spirit prematurely drained of their innocence.’
★★★★★
Robert Daniels, The Playlist

Anton Bitel is an Oxford-based freelance film critic, specialising in horror. He programmes for the London Korean Film Festival. Much of his work can be found at ProjectedFigures.com.