Preboj

Didn't care for this because nothing was explained. I had no idea what this battle was about. The director should have used captions to set it up. Plus, terrible acting snd direction. Boring scenes, slow lingering camera shots. No plot, no character development. I'm sure in hindsight that this was an important battle, so it deserved better storytelling. Boring. Pass!

Movies can have different versions - so I was a bit surprised when I read something about two hours I won't get back. The movie is only 90 minutes long, which is 1.5 hours, for anyone who is counting. On the other hand, if you are not having a good time (no pun intended), than time may seem way slower. As in actual time and time experienced differ.

Which also is quite true about the actual people and what they went through. It's not that we didn't know certain things, but war is always crazy ... and seeing "heroics" in the face of danger (and death) is something that we either cherish to watch (and applaud those involved) or be annoyed by it I reckon.

Well shot and well acted, but not a masterpiece by a long shot. Still more than decent.

Low-budget film that delves into a scarcely or rarely explored chapter of WWII, less known by the general public. Technically, it stands out for its outdoor photography capturing highly evocative mountain landscapes. The direction is somewhat academic, and the actors are not always believable in a type of performance that requires faces weathered by suffering and hardship. Nonetheless, there are very credible moments despite others being less so. Watching the final minutes of the film is crucial to understanding that it is based on a true story.

I rate it 6 out of 10 for the effort in creating a low-budget film that doesn't turn out to be a disaster. I'll add 1 star for the photography and for the ending...

One of the worst movies i've ever seen. Dialogues are terrible, story is partly unlogical (you do not waste your last morphine for those, who have NO chance to survive).

The storyteller reminds me of the film "300" but there that was meant humorous and therefor funny, but here they mean it serious and that is just absolutely awful pathetic, unwillingly (not) funny - like 300 for the poor ;-).

And last but not least: EXTREMELY boring.

Don't watch - complete waste of time.

The time is March 1945, with the Wehrmacht and the SS on the run, trying to retreat to Third Reich territory to face the final onslaught of the Red Army that will end in total German defeat and surrender in May 1945. Their escape route West is subject to attacks by Slovenian partisans and the SS Division Galicia is already on its way from Hungary to deal with them. In the dead of a cold winter, a group of about 500 partisans under the command of 22 year old Franc Sever (Franta) retreat to the slopes of the Menina mountain to avoid the German frontal onslaught. At intervals im the movie we see the real Franta (96 years old in 2019) writing his war memoirs on which this movie is based. At the end, men and women survivors of the Menina action add their views.

I liked this movie. The budget was obviously limited and there are some rough edges in acting and direction, but it pays due homage to the Yugoslavian partisans that carried out an heroic fight against Nazism with scarce or no resources. And, it is also timely in view of disquieting revisionist notions taking hold in Europe. The Galicia Division was guilty of numerous atrocities, praised by Himmler and declared a criminal organization at the Nurenberg Trials. It was composed of ethnic Ukrainians and on April 28 2021 there was a parade in Kyiv celebrating the Division (there were various such demonstrations in Lviv and other cities too). The march was approved by city authorities and there was support from bystanders but, to his credit, President Zelensky condemned it.