Vítimas da Guerra

First of all, anyone should watch this movie not because of the plot, but because one needs to learn history from alternative viewpoints.

What is remarkable about this movie, is that it depicts accurately the Soviet policy of killing any prisoner of war by starving, exposure, sentenced execution of simply random killing. One of the dark secrets of the Allies is that they never respected any Geneva conventions and were notorious for committing crimes against humanity.

So some prisoners (the minority) did survive because of luck. There were a few righteous among the nations that helped them with extra food or clothing at a great risk for themselves, so I am glad this movie pays tribute for those compassionate ladies.

Yikes! Just watched it in Russian. Fortunately I speak enough Russian to understand the voice-over; wish they had kept it in the original English and just added Russian subtitles. Kretschmann, Bruhl, Farmiga and Press all give excellent performances; Evegeny Mironov does the most amazing "silent" performance since his Russian version of Kafka's "Metamorphosis". I have no doubt that anti-German sentiment was running high in 1946 in Leningrad; nevertheless, surely there was some hope or ray of sunshine in all the gloom. I am beginning to understand why this film was not marketed in America. Unless you lived through those times, or are a student of history, the subject matter of this film may not have much appeal. Still, for you history buffs out there, don't miss some fine acting in this film.

If you have basic knowledge of ww2 and topics that relate to this movie, you won't notice the inaccuracies. But German POWs held by the soviets had a mortality rate of over 90%. The soldiers tied to Leningrad, Stalingrad, Belorussia and any SS would be killed quickly and garunteed.

Also, in the movie they are trying to root out SS. In reality all the SS had a tattoo on them indicating their blood-type and it certified their racial purity. The soviets knew of these tattoos so a quick strip search would quickly weed out the SS.

The Nazis devastated the Slav populations. They killed commissars on sight, killed almost all Russian POWs, destroyed hundreds of German towns, exterminated Russian civilian populations, broke the German-Russian non-aggression pact, sent civilians and prisoners through mine fields and used them as human shields, kidnapped aryan-looking babies for the lebensborne program, Inacted a scorched-earth policy, starved Leningrad into cannibalisn, committed genocide (especially in belorussia and Ukraine and western Russia, allied with Finland, killing off 80% of all Russian 20 year-old males by 1943, and used Slav women/children as human shields while rushing soviets positions... not to mention officially labeling Russians as "untermensch" (sub-human) and treated them with a pest-extermination attitude while refusing to acknowledge the Geneva convention; in some cases burning barns full of people and forcing POWs to lay down side by side while they freeze them to death water in order to make a sturdy ice-road.... whole areas of Russia were decimated beyond repair, hundreds of thousands of families were exterminated, countless Slavs became slaves, whole regions were burned and bulldozed to nothing, their Jews were almost wiped out and multiple generations of Russians suffered life-long ptsd.

Factoring all that it is clear to see that the Russians were unrealistically civil and empathetic towards the Germans in this movie. The women working in this camp would almost surely be widows and childless due to the war.

I don't support the treatment of German POWs and civilians after the war.... but to say I can't understand the ruthlessness of the Bolsheviks towards the Germans, would be a lie. I can't imagine the pain that nation experienced while trying to rebuild, recover and re-identify.

This is supposedly based upon a true story. maybe the part that is true is that the Russians didn't have enough space for all their prisoners, and just dumped four dozen in a lightly staffed women's prison.

Starring Thomas Kretschmann, who managed six roles in 2008 including Wanted and Valkyrie in addition to this one. Also featuring Vera Farmiga (The Departed), who only had four roles in 2008, including The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. She has a deal with the prison Commandant, played by John Malkovich, to protect her lover from being sent to the front. Also along is Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds, The Bourne Ultimatum, 2 Days in Paris, Joyeux Noël), always a welcome addition.

It was definitely a dark and depressing film, made the more so by the constant snow. There are some SS Officers in the mix and Pavlov (Malkovich) is determined to root them out and hang them. He enlists Natalia (Farmiga) for this task. Malkovich was born for roles like this.

It is strange the the women who hated the prisoners in the beginning for killing their families manage to find forgiveness at the end so they can have sex.

It was the acting, not the script that made this worthwhile.

I would like to commend the producers for creating a film with unique concept incomparable to other war movies, because instead of tackling the rampant theme of war, they tackled the post-war situation.

First, in criticizing this film, we don't actually have to deal much about the screen portrayals because the movie does not include heavy drama. However, even if it does not, we still have to appreciate the fact that the actors and actresses really did well in portraying and none of them were over acting. Although, we cannot disavow as well, that there were some who were under acting.

Second, I love the fact that the producers did not frontline script to make a beautiful movie. They made it as realistic as it could be, for it seemed more natural than others.

Third, The musical scoring is on average, but one thing that really depressed me is the playing of violin by one of the prisoners that wasn't synchronized with the video.

Fourth, I was expecting something more on what I can see on the screen -- something like extreme panning of cameras to switch scenes or some amazing CGIs to depict extreme cruelty -- but then everything seemed to be mainstream.

Fifth, the video quality was good. It was not that dark so that we can clearly see what's happening on screen. It was not that light neither that gives a hinge of some historic feeling.

Lastly, The whole 113 minutes was dull. The only variations were the few sexualities which were obviously done to attract and catch viewers. They may use "It's a true story" as an excuse for having no pinnacle scenes other than the sexualities, but I believe it could have been better if they used some cliffhangers to retain, for at least, the interest of the viewers.

Overall, I'd give it a rating of 7 out of 10.