“It is simply a fortunate coincidence that this film survived years of censorship during the Soviet ’60s and was finally released at the end of the ’80s. The director made it together with his students, and this cover of being a film school project made the entire production possible. The film presents the horror of war as an existential drama, which radically differs from the traditional Soviet approach, in which war is presented almost exclusively through the prism of patriotic pathos.” –Sergei Loznitsa.