Thoroughly mesmerising chronicle of the initiation of a young teen (Kravchenko) in the horror and insanity of war. Soviet Belorussia, 1943 and a young partisan, left behind by his unit returns to his village only to find a mass of bodies, including those of his family. This epic, allegorical and traumatising enactment of the hellish experience of war ( especially its effect upon a generation of Soviet people) is rendered by Kilmov as a disorienting amalgam of almost lyrical poeticism and expressionist nightmare. An extraordinary film about the need to maintain one’s humanity and dignity no matter what the situation.