Come and See is a nightmare dressed as a war movie. Directed by Elem Klimov and written with Ales Adamovich, it follows a teenage boy named Flyora as German forces invade his village in Belarus. The film is not a clean narrative. It is a fever dream of cruelty, set against the ruins of occupied Europe.
The setup is simple. Flyora digs up a rifle from a trench with another boy to join the partisans. Their village elder warns them against it. The next day, partisans arrive to take Flyora away against his mother’s wishes. He becomes a low-ranking militiaman in the forest, performing menial tasks while the trained fighters leave to fight. When German bombers attack, Flyora meets Glasha, a girl working as a partisan nurse, and the two flee together into the woods.
Trailer, via Film Forum.
Flyora’s Descent Into Horror
Flyora’s journey is the spine of the film. Aleksei Kravchenko plays him as a boy caught between hope and despair, and the performance carries the weight of the entire picture. He is bitter when his commander orders him to stay behind. He weeps walking through the forest. He runs off to a bog, believing his family hides there, only to find a pile of executed villagers.
Glasha, played by Olga Mironova, is his companion through the worst of it. She is unstable, hysterical, and her presence pushes Flyora toward collapse. Together they hide from German officers, sleep under a tree, and wade through the bog where she finally screams at him that his family is dead.
The film does not let Flyora recover. He attempts suicide by drowning his head in the bog, and Glasha stops him. The scene is brutal, and it sets the tone for everything that follows.
The Brutal Debris Of War
The film is built on a tension between realism and surrealism. It mixes hyper-realism with an underlying surrealism, and philosophical existentialism with poetical, psychological, political and apocalyptic themes. This is not a documentary. It is a nightmare rendered in wide shots of burning fields and close-ups of terror on a child’s face.
Klimov fought eight years of censorship from the Soviet authorities before he could produce the film in its entirety. That struggle shows in the final product. The film is unflinching in its depiction of Nazi atrocities and human suffering. It does not soften the violence. It does not look away.
The result is a film that feels less like a war movie and more like a waking trauma. Flyora’s survival becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope. The film’s tagline, “The cruelest side of war,” is not a slogan. It is a description of what happens on screen.
The Ensemble Around Flyora
The supporting cast fills out the world around Flyora. Liubomiras Laucevičius plays Kosach, the commander who orders Flyora to stay behind. Vladas Bagdonas plays Rubezh, the partisan fighter who rescues Flyora and Glasha after they find the pile of executed villagers. Yevgeni Tilicheyev plays Gezhel, the main collaborator, and Viktors Lorencs plays Walter Stein, the German commander. Jüri Lumiste plays the fanatical German officer.
Tatyana Shestakova plays Flyora’s mother, and her brief scenes carry the weight of the loss that drives the second half of the film. The village elder, severely burned by gasoline, tells Flyora of his family’s deaths and repeats his warning about digging up the rifle. That moment closes the circle on the film’s central warning: defiance brings ruin.
A Film Of Lasting Power
Come and See was released in 1985. It received positive reviews during its initial release and won the FIPRESCI prize at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival. It was also the final film that Klimov directed before his death in 2003.
The film’s reputation has grown over time. Critics praised the portrayal of horror, brutality, and psychological damage caused by Nazi atrocities, and Kravchenko’s performance was singled out for particular praise. In 2022, it was ranked the 41st greatest film of all time.
It holds up. The performances are strong, the direction is assured, and the script, based on the 1971 novel Khatyn and the 1977 collection of survivor testimonies I Am From the Fiery Village, is both specific and universal. It is a film about one boy in one village, but it speaks to every village in every war.
The film’s refusal to look away is its strength. It does not offer comfort. It offers only the truth of what happened, and it asks the viewer to bear witness.
Come and See is a difficult film to watch. It is also a necessary one.
Key Facts Box
- Title: Come and See (Иди и смотри)
- Director: Elem Klimov
- Writer: Ales Adamovich, Elem Klimov
- Runtime: 142 minutes
- Release Year: 1985
- FIPRESCI Prize: Won at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival
- Ranking: 41st greatest film of all time (2022)
Comparison Table
| Element | Come and See | Other War Films |
|---|---|---|
| Tone | Surreal horror | Realistic drama |
| Protagonist | Teenage boy | Adult soldier |
| Setting | Occupied Belarus | European front lines |
| Perspective | Personal, intimate | Wide, strategic |
| Ending | Nightmarish closure | Tragic resolution |
The comparison shows what makes Come and See distinct. It is a film about war told through the eyes of a child, and that perspective shapes everything it does.
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