Come and See (1985) on Netflix
In 1943 Belarus, Flyora digs a rifle from a trench and joins the Soviet partisans, against his mother's wishes. Left behind at the forest camp, he meets Glasha, a partisan nurse.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb8.3/10126,608 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Flyora, a Belarusian teenager, and another boy dig a rifle out of a trench in 1943, hoping to join the Soviet partisans. The village elder warns them that this will stir the suspicions of the occupying Germans, and a reconnaissance aircraft notices their work. The next day partisans arrive to conscript Flyora against his mother's wishes and take him to a forest camp, where he serves as a low-rank militiaman doing menial tasks. When the trained fighters leave to battle, their commander, Kosach, orders Flyora and several others to stay behind. Disappointed, Flyora walks into the forest in tears and comes across Glasha, an adolescent girl serving as a partisan nurse. Dive bombers and German paratroopers then attack the forest, and the pair flee.
Cast
- G. Veltsas German
Show all 20 cast
- Gennadiy Yelkinas Flyora's friend
- N. Lisichenok
- Evgeniy Tilicheevas Gezhel, German translator (as Ye. Tilicheyev)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Come and See (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's guns were often loaded with live ammunition rather than blanks, and Aleksei Kravchenko said bullets sometimes passed just 4 inches (10 cm) above his head; the crew had little protection, sheltering behind a concrete slab 1.5 m tall and 5 m wide when dive bombs were detonated.
- For eight years the State Committee for Cinematography (Goskino) would not accept Elem Klimov's screenplay, judging it too realistic and propaganda for the "aesthetics of dirtiness" and "naturalism".
- Klimov started filming in 1984 without compromising to censorship at all; the only change was the title, from Kill Hitler to Come and See.
- Klimov called in a hypnotist with autogenic training to prepare 14-year-old Aleksei Kravchenko for the role, saying the boy's acting could have had a very sad ending and he could have landed in an insane asylum.
- Klimov noted the world knew about the Katyn massacre of Polish officers but not about Belorussia, where more than 600 villages were burned.
- Kravchenko's hair did not turn permanently grey, contrary to rumor: a special silver Interferenz greasepaint with a thin layer of actual silver was used to dye it, and he lived with the result for some time after shooting.
- According to Klimov, the film was so shocking for audiences that ambulances were sometimes called in to take away particularly impressionable viewers, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.
