This film is based on Ales Adamovic’s novel "Harten's Story" and Breli and Kolesnik’s work recording Deco's bestiality in Belarus. Director Klimov was only eight years old when the war began. For a long time, he felt that if he didn't make such a film about war, about people in war, people's hearts, and people who can maintain their own humanity in an environment where humanity is extinct, he has not fulfilled the responsibilities of an artist. Therefore, as early as 1975, after he completed "Dying Struggle" based on the court life of Tsar Nicholas II on the eve of the October Revolution, he set about conceiving this film about the tragedy in the village of Hatten, Belarus.
Judging from the title, this film is meant to prevent the audience from commenting on the film with the eyes of a bystander, but to "watch it for themselves" to experience the tragic events that happened in the film.
The beginning of the film is very unusual. Before the scene of the protagonist Friola and his partner Fejka digging guns in the dunes in order to participate in the guerrillas, the audience heard an old farmer Yuskin’s The voice-over voice with a hoarse voice: "What are you digging? Are you playing? Dig, dig, bastard! If you don't listen to your mother, let you listen to this stick!" This passage shows that Yuskin has foreseen these teenagers. Going to war will encounter misfortune.
Although the life of the guerrillas in the forest is not many pictures, it is very real and vivid, and there is no lack of humor. For example, their assembly before the battle, group photos taken, and the speech of Commander Kosachi, etc. were all handled properly and made people feel cordial. When the commander ordered Friola to stay and join the reserve team, Friola shouted "I'm here to fight!" This revealed Friola's beautiful heart in defending the motherland.
The film everywhere shows the confrontation between humanity and fascist animality. Graça begs Friola for love, longing for "childbirth". The scene cannot be understood from a vulgar sociological point of view. The film author does not want to add a little "love" to a harsh film about war, more It is not to advocate young people's early love during the war, but to sing humanity through Grasha's desire for beautiful love. The film tells people: at any time, all things are to grow, girls always yearn for beautiful love, to assume the sacred duty of multiplying the offspring of mankind, this is the bestiality of fascism can not stop. The film borrowed this episode to sing the victory of human nature. The director and photographer used expressive screen language to portray the beautiful psychological state of Graça and Friola after they were happy. The sex scenes of the young men and women did not appear on the screen. Instead, they used the poetic scene of cranes walking in the forest as a metaphor for their joy. Later, the silver drizzle and the passionate dance of Grasha appeared on the screen. This scene formed a strong contrast with the later "death test", and the romantic passion and harsh documentary reflected each other.
The scene where Friola and Graça return to Friola's house is handled uniquely and concisely. The village is surprisingly silent, and there is no one around, and the film heralds misfortune. When the two walked into the door of Friola's house, the sound of flies buzzing sounded on the screen. Here, the film author used the sound as a foreshadowing. This was the first sign that Graça later saw a mountain of corpses next to the shed. When the protagonist saw toys scattered randomly on the ground, knew that the situation was not good, and ran out, the film did not immediately tell the audience what had happened. There seemed to be a "pause" in the film. When the two protagonists passed through a swamp and came to the sand dunes on the island, the film used audio to show the tragic events that had occurred: people were wailing, birds and beasts were singing... Then there appeared on the screen lying on the ground. The burnt old farmer Yuskin, this picture is trembling.
There is very little dialogue in the film, and the visual image is particularly expressive. After several guerrillas met by Friola died one after another, he alone grabbed the rope tied to the nose of the cow and crawled forward. There was no dialogue, but it convincingly showed that Friola was single-minded. Thinking of the hungry people on the island, doing everything possible to take this cow to feed them. The film never forgets to show the noble humanitarian spirit of the protagonist.
The scene of fascists burning the village shows the tragic desire of the murdered villagers for life and the strong hatred of the executioners. The director reproduced a specific real situation in the Belarusian countryside on the screen. In these heinous scenes, the exact time of the event disappeared, as if the tragedy happened right before our eyes. Here, the documentary similar to the documentary produced a strong artistic effect. The director does not want to scare people with the cruelty of war, but wants to expose the raging and trampling of human nature by the extinct bestial acts through these scenes.
The film not only shows the brutality of the Deco, but also exposes their deceptiveness. In the scene of the massacre, the radio speakers broadcast: "Germany is a civilized country..." But what the audience saw on the screen was that the Germans drove women and children into the warehouse like cattle; it was the executioner. The child threw it back to the window of the storeroom; it was the fascists who grabbed the young woman's hair and threw it into the German soldier's car; it was these bandits who were taking pictures for fun. Shitan, the conductor of the massacre, was watching the tragedy while listening to music. This extinct fascist gangster cared for his monkey. In his eyes, the innocent villagers were not as good as his playthings.
At the end of the film, Friola couldn’t bear to shoot at the photo of the young Hitler in his mother’s arms. , He was also innocent when he was young.
Praising the noble humanity and humanitarian spirit through the cruelty of war was a major feature of Soviet war films of that era. "Go and see for yourself" fully embodies this characteristic.
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