The invading armies of Germany had destoryed many of
the former Soviet Countries. The book ''The Story of
Khatyn and other war stories”, co-authored by Ales Adamovich, tells
us what happened to the 628 Belarussian villages which were set ablaze and its
entire population killed by the merciless racist German invaders. Ales
Adamovich has written the screenplay with Elem
Klimov who is also the director of this brilliant Russian world war
movie (1985) which is produced by Belarusfilm and Mosfilm Studios. Aleksei Rodionov,
the director
of photography, has framed the movie to make it look so real accompanied by heart
wrenching music of Oleg Yanchenko, together they have succeeded in giving the movie the unreal realistic
feel of an epic.
The 13 year old, always smiling, Flyora (played
by Aleksei Kravchenko)
wanted to join the partisan forces just like every able bodied man of his
village had done to fight the Germans who proclaimed the villagers, lesser
humans than the Germans, did not have the right to live in this world. To back
their claims they were invading countries and killing everyone whom they were
defeating. In those days one had to report with his own arms and baggage to be
enlisted into the partisan army. On the insistence of a younger friend who had
found a gun from the grave of a dead World War 1 soldier on the village beach, Flyora
was digging up the beach looking for a gun. He finally managed one but was severely
reprimanded by his elderly uncle for digging up on the beach which was under
German air surveillance. To make matters worse the two boys were spotted by the
German reconnaissance plane standing on the beach armed. Soon, the German
paratroopers arrived at their village.
Against his mother’s wishes Flyora joined the partisan
army and left the village happy and proud. He was enlisted and taken to the
base camp where he had the opportunity to meet other fellow soldiers and even
became a part of the group photo in his new army uniform and boots. Unfortunately
he was left behind by the army when the Commander asked him to give away his
new boots to a senior soldier who did not have one. With a girl friend, Glasha
(played by Olga Mironova), he met at
the camp he returned to his village to find to his horror that his entire village
was not only ran over by the enemy but everyone including men, women and children were
slaughtered. From then on the life of the innocent young boy turned into one horrific experience of experiencing terror and brutality which the young boy couldn't help but blame himself when he and Glasha joins the survivors who have escaped to an island where he meets his severely burned uncle who was set on fire by the Germans who still reprimands him, "Didn't I tell you not to dig on the beach...". Flyora’s emotional
war experiences make this movie one of the greatest war films ever made.
The director Elem Klimov wrote the screenplay along
with Ales Adamovich and masterfully recreated the entire series of events close
to the original using real time experience for film shooting. The burning of the
church, the dead cow scene at night with shots fired, everything was set in reality to
film the movie and the director managed to frame the real expression from his
actors with the aid of real background.
The movie won a grand prize at the 1985 Moscow international film festival and was shown to schoolchildren over the years to tell them about the horrors of war and help them understand the importance of not having another world war.
For certain, the movie will leave you spellbound! Flyora and his times will stay on in our minds for a long long time making us wish that there won't be another world war.
A link to the movie with English Subtitles:
