Come and See

1985/146 minutes/Soviet Union
/Russian/German/Belarusian

Directed by:Elem Klimov
Written by:Ales Adamovich /Elem Klimov
Starring:Aleksei Kravchenko/Olga Mironova
Music by:Oleg Yanchenko
Cinematography:Alexei Rodionov
Editing by:Valeriya Belova

Come and See , directed by Elem Klimov, is a 1985 Soviet war movie and psychological horror drama about and occurring during the Nazi German occupation of the Belarussian SSR, in 1943. Aleksei Kravchenko and Olga Mironova star as the protagonists Florya and Glasha. The screenplay is by Ales Adamovich and Elem Klimov


Plot summary
Come and See begins with two Belorussian boys digging in a sand field looking for abandoned rifles, in order to be permitted membership of the Soviet partisan forces, while an old farmer warns them not to dig. One of the boys, Florya (or "Florian," in certain translations), finds an SVT-40. The next day, partisans arrive at his house and take Florya with them, to the dismay of his mother who fears that the loss of her son, like his father before him, will lessen her and her daughters chances of survival. The partisans converge in a forest and prepare to confront the Nazis, but the partisan commander orders Florya to remain behind at the camp in reserve; disappointed, Florya walks into the forest, weeping, and comes across Glasha, a girl in love with the commander who has also been left behind. Suddenly, German aeroplanes appear and begin to drop German parachutists, and the camp comes under heavy artillery fire.

Florya goes temporarily deaf from the explosions and, after hiding out in the forest, returns to his home village with Glasha. He does not find his family at home but his sisters dolls are lined up on the floor and the house is overrun by flies. When they sit down to eat the still warm dinner from the oven, Glasha vomits. Denying what they both suspect, Florya decides that they must be hiding on an nearby island across a bog. As they run from the village, Glasha turns and sees a huge pile of bodies stacked behind Florya's house. When they get to the island after painstakingly wading through the bog, they meet a large number of other villagers who fled the Nazis, including the old man who warned Florya not to dig, now doused in gasoline and burnt by the Nazis. Florya finally understands that his family did not survive.

He and three resistance fighters leave to find food for the starving villagers, and find the SS engaged in anti-Partisan and Einsatzgruppen killing activities. The food store is too well defended to be raided and two of their number are blown up after Florya mistakenly leads them through a minefield. At dusk, they sneak up to an occupied town and manage to steal a cow from a Nazi-collaborating farmer, but as they flee across the fields they are shot at and both Florya's companion and the cow are killed.

The next morning, Florya, unable to move the dead cow, finds a horse and cart and decides to take that back to the villagers for food. The owner of the horse attempts to stop him but, shortly after, they hear the sound of the approaching mass of German soldiers. The farmer helps Florya hide his partisan jacket and rifle in the field and takes him to his village of Perekhody, where they hurriedly discuss a fake identity for him. The Nazis move into the village and herd everyone to a wooden church, locking them all inside. A German officer announces to the terrified people that any of them will be allowed to climb out of the barn through a side window, as long as they leave their children behind. No one moves, but Florya takes up their offer and climbs out. Shortly after, a woman attempts to climb out with her child but she is dragged away by her hair and the toddler is thrown back through the window. Grenades are thrown into the church, which is then set on fire and shot at; Florya watches the inferno of burning Belorussian peasants while the Nazis stand and applaud, taking photographs and laughing. The woman who escaped the church is put into a moving truck with a group of soldiers and repeatedly raped.

As the Germans leave the burning village they are ambushed by the partisans, who slaughter most of them and capture a small number, including their commander. Florya recovers his rifle and jacket and brings a cannister of gasoline to burn the German and Belorussian collaborator prisoners. The main collaborator, insisting that they are not to blame for the slaughter, translates the words of German commander, who claims to be a good man and a doting grandfather. Another German officer is disgusted by his commander's cowardice and tells the partisans that they, as an inferior race and communist sympathisers, will eventually be exterminated. The prisoners are all doused with petrol, but the crowd shoot them down before they can be set on fire. As the partisans leave, Florya notices a portrait of Adolf Hitler in a puddle and shoots it. After each shot, there is sequence of montages that play in reverse and regress in time: corpses at a concentration camp; Hitler congratulating a German boy; 1930s Nazi party congresses, images of Hitler's combat service in World War I, images of Hitler as a schoolboy; and finally a picture of the infant Adolf in his mother's lap. After each sequence, Florya shoots the picture — yet he does not fire the last shot at the baby Hitler.

In the final scene Florya catches up with and blends in with his partisan comrades marching through the woods. They are seen marching away into the dark of the trees; afterwards, the camera rises to the sky.