This austere but never ponderous film about war, and its effect on those caught up in impossible circumstances, is set in German-occupied Belarus in 1942. Its central character is Sushenya, a railway worker accused with some colleagues of attempting to sabotage a Nazi train but told that he will be set free if he collaborates. He refuses and, surprisingly, is allowed to go. His co-workers are hanged, and now no one believes he is not a traitor.
He is faced with a dilemma he can’t solve and, at the beginning of the film, before we know what really happened, we see two partisans arriving at his home to take their revenge. Hopelessly he goes with them carrying the spade with which he is to dig his own grave.
Escaping when the partisans are attacked, he stoically faces a fate possibly worse than that — of a man drowned within the swamp of war.
The director of this extraordinary film is Belarus-born Sergei Loznitsa. He has a watchable cast, with Vladimir Svirskiy outstanding as Sushenya, and his superb cinematographer is Oleg Mutu, who shot the Romanian Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
