The feature film directed by Elem Klimov, shot in the genre of military drama. The action takes place on the territory of Belarus in 1943. In the center of the story is a Belarusian boy, who witnesses the horrors of the Nazi punitive action, turning from a cheerful teenager into a gray-haired old man for two days.
Directed by Elem Klimov, Come and See (Idi i smotri, 1985) stands as one of the most uncompromising, devastating, and profound anti-war films in cinema history. Depicting the Nazi occupation and systematic destruction of Byelorussian villages during World War II through the perspective of an adolescent boy, the film entirely rejects conventional heroism and battlefield romanticism. Instead, it immerses the viewer into a visceral, relentless psychological nightmare shaped by atrocity, grief, and terror.
The narrative follows young Flyora (Aleksei Kravchenko), whose eager enlistment into the Soviet partisans quickly disintegrates into a harrowing descent into madness. Klimov’s direction, coupled with Aleksei Rodionov’s fluid Steadicam cinematography and a disorienting, tinnitus-infused sound design, creates an oppressive atmosphere suspended between stark realism and feverish hallucination. Kravchenko’s astonishing performance documents an accelerated loss of innocence; his physical transformation and haunted expression embody the irreversible psychological scars inflicted by total war.
The climactic village massacre sequence remains one of the most chilling portrayals of collective malice and hysteria ever committed to celluloid. Rather than succumbing to mere spectacle or conventional revenge catharsis, the final sequence—in which Flyora repeatedly shoots a portrait of Adolf Hitler set to Mozart’s Requiem—evolves into a profound philosophical confrontation with historical trauma and the origins of evil. Come and See is a grueling yet essential masterpiece that leaves an indelible mark on the viewer's conscience.
