In the Movie Come and See we watch the adventures of a young Belarusian boy in the middle of a war. Floyra, played by Aleksey Kravchenko, is a young man who seems exceedingly enthusiastic about joining and fighting with the military. It opens with him and a younger boy searching for guns in the sand. They seem happy with the idea of joining the army. Once he’s enlisted with some hardened soldiers, we watch the effects of war weigh heavily on Floyra’s emotions in just days. We start realizing that maybe he regrets that day playing in the sand.

     This film is composed by the director Elem Klimov who, as a child, experienced the battle in Stalingrad in 1942. He describes the attack and how his mother rushed to a hiding spot while his dad stayed back to fight. He shares that his mother covered them with clothes and her body to protect them from debris and flames pouring down around them. Kilmov describes this as hell. This hell will remain with him forever. That’s one of the reasons he decided to make Come and See. He wanted a way to portray the lasting trauma and emotions that never went away from that experience. And with the Cold War coming to its peak he desired to remind the world how awful war is. 

     This anti-war film came out in 1985 and was temporarily titled Kill Hitler. Kilmov had to take the word Hitler out of the title before releasing it that’s why it changed. After talking with Ales Adamovich, they came up with the name Come and See from a quote in the bible. Revelations verse 1–8 of Chapter 6 says: And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. This talks of the apocalypse, and Kilmov seems to depict this in his disturbing film.

     Come and See didn’t make its way to America until 2020, but even with the delayed release, this film hasn’t failed to shock many viewers. The raw emotions plus deranged images make this film one of the most disturbing anti-war films. Come and See illuminates the true horror in this world. How ordinary people can transform into monsters, the products of propaganda. Come and see the legacy of war. 

The full review will come out this Friday on the Movie Review page.