Winter 1942. The Sixth Army of the Wehrmacht is fighting in Stalingrad, destroyed to the foundation. A platoon of elite German soldiers, who lost more than half of their personnel in the very first battle, are fighting a desperate struggle for survival.

The whistle of bullets and the roar of Katyushas, hunger and cold bring them to the brink of madness. Almost nothing keeps the soldier on the thin line between life and death. After all that they saw, after the loss of all ideals, the Fuhrer’s call to “stand to the end” takes on a completely different, much more terrible meaning for them …

4k movies reviews
Not so long ago I read documentaries about the Battle of Stalingrad. To say what impressed is to say nothing. And just yesterday, I learned about this film, while in search of pictures about the Second World War. So he impressed me no less than that documentary.

Before watching the film, I did not specifically read the reviews and did not delve into the details of the plot. I wanted to make an impression of him from scratch. To be honest, there were fears that another action movie in the Hollywood style was awaiting me, in which they might show several beautiful battle scenes, a tearful story of a soldier, etc. I’m very glad that I was mistaken. The picture, in contrast to the same Hollywood, spectacular and generally good, but filmed without a soul, can quite rightly stand on a par with blockbusters on this topic. It does not have any surplus in terms of a huge budget, special effects, there is no pathos and patriotism inherent in American films. There are realities. The cruel realities of that terrible war.

At first, when a group of fascists is surrounded, you think: well, okay, they deserve it. But with every minute, listening to the dialogues and thoughts aloud of these soldiers, watching their actions, seeing their forced communication with Soviet soldiers and civilians, you involuntarily understand that everything is not so simple. Of course, even before watching the film, it was clear that not all those who fought for Germany and their allies were beasts, fascists, moral monsters. But here we were shown it once again. And without any feigned pathos, without attempts to justify the Germans as a whole. Next to the soldiers of the Wehrmacht, who remained people in difficult conditions of cold and hunger, their colleagues constantly coexist – the very “animals” for whom human life is not important, even if it is the life of your own soldier. So there is no idealization of the image of the German soldier, as for example in the film “Operation Valkyrie”.

It is worth saying that the picture is very realistic and naturalized. If you watched the domestic “Purgatory”, or at least “Saving Private Ryan” then you will understand what I mean. And believe me, the severed arms and legs are far from the most impressive and depressing in the film. The other shots are really impressive and even shocking. People dying of hunger, wounds and cold, walking literally over the bodies of dozens and hundreds of those killed, both their own and those of others, searching the corpses of dead comrades numb in the frost, in search of a wound certificate that gives a life-saving ticket from Stalingrad … And this is just a fraction of that what you have to see.

The Battle of Stalingrad became one of the most difficult for both the Soviet people and the Germans. Unbearable conditions, cold and hunger, sometimes forced enemies to become allies in the struggle for survival. And all this is shown in the film quite authentically. I repeat once again, there is no typically Hollywood patriotism here, neither in relation to ours, nor in relation to the Germans. There are no heroes here, there are no gallant soldiers who can complete any task. There are people here, placed in inhuman conditions, who have no choice but to survive.

This film does not divide the characters into “Russian is good, Fritz is evil.” He divides them into “people and people turned into animals.” I highly recommend watching it, even if you are not a fan of military subjects. The more such, almost semi-documentary films about the terrible realities of that war, and the more people watch them, the more chances humanity has to learn the lessons of history and never repeat such terrible mistakes.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10+
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kb/s)

Subtitles
English-SRT, English-PGS