V avguste 44-go

I like war history and like to watch war movies. This one, in my opinion, is nothing more that a very unbelivable story about supermen from special secret police forces which seek an enemy intelligence group in Belorussian forests. The movie is full of historcal and technical mistakes, actors' works except of one are poor, the one is Chief of Food Depot which is absolutely perfect but only about one minute long. All action goes about three houses, two glades and one truck. For me the most puzzle is where the declared something about 40-million US $ budget for the movie was spent?

Pros:

This movie does not force a bunch of cheesy propaganda down your throat. No banner waving so typical for American flicks, no bad Germans and good Russians so typical for Soviet war movies. In fact, there are no Germans in it! All you see a bunch of SMERSH guys doing their job, and doing it well. Technically, the movie is very accurate. Uniforms, weapons, vehicles... all top notch. Very nice locations, settings, camera work and editing.

Cons:

The story lacks action and any kind of suspense. Which would be almost OK if it was 40 minutes shorter. I wish the director had better script to work with.

The verdict: An average Soviet (in this case, post-Soviet) war flick, decently shot and acted but pretty boring.

The rating: 5/10.

Go see Das Boot if you want a really striking non-Hollywood WWII movie.

Being a Russian, which means that I was raised on epic WWII movies a lot of which I came to simply love for many reasons besides great acting and plot, I have to admit that this one became my favorite.

As you must have read from other comments, this movie has nothing to do with what most people expect from war movie: no propaganda, no superheros, no battle scenes. In fact the war makes just an environmental case here.

The movie is all about characters and the plot that keeps you tense to the end.

IMO these factors make it a fairly international movie.

"In August of 1944" - the military action movie of Mikhail Ptashuk. The deadly confrontation of the power of mind, courage and spirit of irreconcilable enemies - Russian and German military scouts at the end of World War II in the forests of Belarus. Some of the best roles are Evgeniy Mironov and Vladislav Galkin.

Superb acting. Fantastic camera work. Authentic in every way.

No more than 10 minutes I was into this movie, I was glued !

Effectively, this is a Spy v Spy movie with the backdrop of WW2.

Highly recommended. I give it a solid 8 stars.