Idi i smotri (Komm und sieh)

A partisan film that wants to be the end point for everyone else and an almost biblical comparison of the Nazi atrocities with the horror of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which served as the inspiration for the title. Evoking images of death and hell was the intention of Elem Klimov, who experienced the brutality of war as a child in Stalingrad, and his co-author Ales Adamovich, who fought as a partisan in Belarus and witnessed the systematic destruction. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the "Great Victory", Idi i smotri was intended to remind the world of the fascist genocide in Belarus, which claimed over a million lives. Torturous, harrowing, visceral, hyper-realistic and yet lyrical at the same time. The journey to hell from the perspective of a young Belarusian partisan became famous as one of the greatest anti-war films of all time. (Juriy Meden)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum