#alexei kravchenko

[filmphilics]

Recommendation of the week: Come And See (1985)

Dir.: Elem Klimov

Cast: Alexei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, Vladas Bagdonas, Victor Lorents.

Genre: War

Plot: After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.

Filmphilics score: 8'5/10

[toptenfilmlists]

Come and See (Idi i Smotri)

This is the film I chose to make my 3000th unique film that I’ve seen. At first, I was a little disappointed, then I was completely overwhelmed with emotions ranging from hysteria to pain to fear to sadness. And then everything broke down at a fundamental level. The second half of the film is harrowing in the best and worst sense of the word. Alexei Kravchenko is an incredibly powerful performer. It’s a very difficult film to watch at times, but a truly mind-altering experience.

[mothlightmagazine]

Idi i Smotri (Come and See) - Elem Klimov, 1985

Without doubt the most profound and upsetting film you're likely ever to see about the Second World War, Come and See depicts the relentless sufferings of the citizens of one out of 628 Byelorussian villages completely annihilated by the Nazis. The title for the film comes from a passage in Revelations of the bible, The Apocalypse of John, which Klimov powerfully evokes:

"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

Trivia: For many of the scenes Klimov insisted that live ammunition was fired over the heads of his actors for effect. Child actor Alexei Kravchenko soon began to exhibit symptoms of war trauma under the graphically realistic conditions and had to be hypnotised in order to complete the film.