S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+5
Entertainment
+6
Rewatchability
+1
CastAleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius
StreamingCriterion Channel, Prime Video (rent)
S.W.’s Verdict
A boy joins the Belarusian resistance in World War II and ages forty years in two hours. Elem Klimov made the most honest war film ever produced by refusing to let the camera look away from anything. The entertainment score is high because the film seizes your nervous system and does not release it — not because it's enjoyable. The rewatchability is near zero because once is enough to scar you permanently. The final sequence is among the most harrowing things ever committed to film.