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Come and See poster

Come and See (Idi i smotri)

1985 · 142 min · movie
⭐ 8.3 (123,973 votes)

In 1943, Flyora and another Belarusian boy dig up a rifle from a trench to join the Soviet partisans. They do so in defiance of their village elder, who warns them that this would arouse the suspicions of the occupying Germans. The boys' activities are noticed by a reconnaissance aircraft.

The next day, partisans arrive at Flyora's house to conscript him against his mother's wishes. Flyora is taken to a partisan camp in the forest, where he becomes a low-rank militiaman who performs menial tasks. When those partisans trained to fight leave, their commander Kosach orders Flyora and several other men to remain behind at the camp. Bitterly disappointed, Flyora walks into the forest weeping. He comes across Glasha, an emotionally unstable adolescent girl working as a partisan nurse. The forest is suddenly attacked by dive bombers and German paratroopers, forcing the duo to flee. They hide from German officers passing through the forest and sleep under a tree for the night.

Flyora and Glasha travel to his village, only to find it deserted. Denying that his family is dead, Flyora believes they are hiding on a nearby island across a bog and runs off. Glasha follows, by chance seeing a pile of executed villagers behind his house, before yelling at Flyora to leave quickly. They become hysterical after wading through the bog, where Glasha screams at Flyora that his family is dead. Rubezh, a partisan fighter, rescues them and takes them to meet the surviving villagers. The village elder, severely burned by gasoline, tells Flyora of his family's deaths and repeats his warning about digging up the rifle. Once again hysterical, Flyora submerges his head in the bog, but Glasha and the villagers stop him.

Rubezh takes Flyora and two other men to raid a warehouse for food. The group find the warehouse unexpectedly guarded by German troops and are forced to retreat. Flyora's two comrades are killed by a land mine. Rubezh and Flyora coerce a Nazi-collaborating farmer to hand over his cow, but a German machine gun kills Rubezh and the cow. Flyora attempts to steal a horse and cart from another man to transport the cow, but he convinces Flyora to hide his gun and Red Army jacket as SS troops appear. He takes Flyora to his house in Perekhody village.

German troops and collaborators surround and occupy the village. Flyora runs outside and sees women, children, and the elderly being forcibly marched down the street. Flyora warns them that they are being herded to their deaths, but he is forced into a barn church with them. The Germans barricade the doors, leaving the people inside screaming while the soldiers laugh. Flyora and a young woman with a child exit the church; the woman's child is thrown back in while she is dragged off to be gang raped. The soldiers throw explosives into the church and barricade the windows. The church is set on fire, killing everyone inside as the soldiers celebrate. A German officer holds a pistol to Flyora's head to pose for a picture, then abandons him as the soldiers leave.

Flyora wanders away from the scorched village, finding the aftermath of a partisan ambush on the escaping Germans. Flyora recovers his jacket and rifle, only to spot the gang-raped woman bleeding and stumbling in a fugue state. He finds Kosach and the partisans nearby, having captured some of the Germans and their collaborators responsible for the church fire. They plead for their lives, blaming a fanatical and unapologetic Obersturmführer. Kosach suggests that one collaborator douse the others with petrol; he willingly does so, but the partisans shoot them all before they can be set on fire.

As the partisans leave, Flyora notices a boy looking at a painting of Hitler in a puddle. When the boy leaves, Flyora repeatedly shoots the portrait; a montage of clips from Hitler's life plays in reverse, but when Hitler is shown as a baby on his mother 's lap, Flyora stops shooting and cries. A title card states, " 628 Belorussian villages were destroyed, along with all their inhabitants ". Flyora rushes to rejoin his comrades.

Directed by

Elem Klimov

Starring

Liubomiras Laucevičius
Aleksei Kravchenko