This week, we have a happy little film that shows the violence, murder, rape, and trauma that took place during the Nazi invasion of Belarus. Yeah, this is very much a heavy film, but a good and well-made one, I felt. They go to great lengths to show you just how bad it was for folks in that country, and the main kid actor does a great job portraying the overwhelming and messed-up emotions that one would experience living through this event. Some might see it as a bit propagandic, in that they’ll portray the worst of the Nazis but not the worst of the Soviets, but I don’t think the film ever comes across as overbearingly so, and I think its choice of presentation makes sense for the story they’re telling. Anyway, without getting into too much preemptive discussion, let’s talk about the story.
The film follows a young Belarusian boy named Flyora and his experiences during World War II. His story starts with him digging up relics from a recent battle site, mostly focused on finding a rifle, which he does. The village elder tells him not to do so, and when a German plane flying overhead manages to see what Flyora’s doing, we can only imagine what’s going to come from this. Shortly after this, he’s drafted into the army, against the despaired pleadings of his mother. However, it turns out to be less cool or exciting as he initially had hoped, as he’s mostly just taking care of stuff around their forest camp, never actually seeing any combat. In fact, when the army heads out to battle, the commanding officer orders Flyora to say behind, much to his disappointment. While hanging around the camp, he happens upon Gasha, a girl working at the camp who seems to have a certain connection or respect for the officer. They have a dementedly harsh interaction at first, with Gasha prodding Flyora’s self-image, saying that the officer left him behind because he felt sorry for him and that he’s useless as a soldier, which leads to Flyora breaking down in sadness and anger. However, as they spend more time together, they do start to warm up to each other, almost going through a little “European Arthouse Eden” for a bit. Sadly, the Nazi air force has found out their location and starts shelling the whole area. Flyora’s hearing get damaged from one of the explosions, but the two manage to hide from the soldiers in a little shelter they made to avoid the rain. They eventually get out of the forest and head to Flyora’s village, only to find it completely abandoned. Flyora is convinced that his family is still there and tears through the house trying to find them, but to no avail. Instead of accepting the truth, he becomes convinced that his family is hiding in a nearby marsh, on what he calls “the island.” As he leads Gasha out of the village, she manages to catch a glimpse of a pile of corpses just on the other side of a building, something that Flyora never sees. The two make their way through the marshlands, nearly neck deep in murky and muddy water, and finally reach the shore. However, Gasha can’t take it anymore and starts yelling at Flyora that his family is dead, which he doesn’t take very well, leading to him choking her and even pushing her into the bog water, though he comes to his senses and helps her back up. They end up finding something of a refugee site for several of the villagers that managed to get away, including the elder, who was sadly left in a severely burnt state. He tells Flyora that he warned him not to dig up the gun, that by doing so, he’s “brought the war to them.” Flyora falls into a heavy despair and nearly drowns himself in the bog water, but Gasha manages to stop him. Rubezh, a resistance fighter at the refugee camp, plans to take a group of men and raid a Nazi warehouse for supplies. Flyora ends up volunteering for the party and the crew set off to complete their mission. Sadly, all of this was only the beginning of Flyora’s hardships. What becomes of out Belarusian boy? What other horrors and tragedy await him on the unforgiving battlefields? Well, I’ll try not to give too much away, though I might need to discuss certain things. Hopefully I’ll walk this balance well, but I guess we’ll see in my analysis.
As you can probably surmise, Come and See is a pretty harsh film. It really doesn’t try to sugarcoat all of the horrible atrocities that were committed to the Belarusians during that war. Dead and burnt bodies are a recurring sight, and Flyora is in a near constant state of turmoil. Like I said before, his actor does a great job playing his mixed-up emotions in a believable way, with even just his “on-the-verge-of-breaking” face saying a lot with little. It’s impressive that someone so young, and with apparently no previous experience, could be such an effective actor. From what I understand, they had to be careful about how they directed him in the film and what they exposed him to, as they didn’t want to traumatize him, which was a good move, honestly. The character’s experience and progression throughout the film are very believable, though its worth noting that they don’t follow a traditional story structure. The “plot” that the movie starts with doesn’t exactly stay the same throughout the runtime, with various characters coming in and out of the story as the situation changes. For instance, Gasha, the girl he meets in the early parts of the film, all but disappears from the film when he goes off with Rubezh and his crew. This might seem odd for those that are looking for a more set story structure, but I think it makes sense for this film, as the whole point is to show the spiraling madness of the whole situation as it happened. Flyora is basically our guide through this horrible tragedy as it goes from bad to worse, and his reaction to the events, going from the hopeful would be soldier to a tangle of despair and hatred, are all the more saddening for it. I won’t say exactly where the film leaves of with him, but it is an interesting choice. The final scene plays out almost in a way that suggests a propagandic message, but I had to wonder if it was an earnest attempt at propaganda, or more along the lines of a “isn’t it sad that it had to come to this?” sort of idea. In terms of the film being propagandic, it obviously focuses very heavily on the Nazi side of WWII atrocities, never mentioning anything from the Soviet side. Whether or not this was an intentional choice for propaganda purposes, or just a fact of the restrictions that came with it being a Soviet film, I don’t think the film necessarily needed to acknowledge the other side in this case. That’s not what this story is about, this story is about the Nazi invasion of Belarus and about trying to take the audience through this awful event, and in that way, this film succeeds greatly. It is, in general, very well made, with some solid cinematography, including a heck of a shot near the end involving a girl up close on one side of the screen with Flyora in the background. The dark and twisted mental aspects also add to the overall experience and give the film that distinctive Russian/Belarusian vibe, as seen in Gasha’s prodding of Flyora and the Elder’s blaming of Flyora for “bringing the war.” I also have to note a clever recurring element in that of the German plane that pops up regularly throughout the film, giving a sense that no matter what the Belarusians do, the Nazis and the omen of war they bring are always there, forever watching and waiting to strike. All these elements come together to paint a picture of a situation that’s seemingly hopeless and cruel, but also one that the people can’t let stand. However, even though they’ll continue to fight (and win in the end, as history tells), the scars will never heal, and the innocence of youth can never be reclaimed. I think I’ve said most all of what I wanted to say, so I’ll wrap things up here.
So, in all, I found Come and See to be a really good film and one that I would definitely recommend, if you have the constitution for it. It’s included in the Criterion Collection, which I’m not surprised by, as it seems right up their alley. Even if you end up not enjoying it, I hope that you can at least appreciate it for what it’s trying to do and for its place as a statement of a country that doesn’t tend to get heard much. I invite you to Come and See the pale horse named Nazi and the Hell that followed with him in Belarus, but be warned, as these sights are not for the feint of heart.