Come and See (Criterion Collection) 06/20 Blu-ray (Rental)

This legendary film from Soviet director Elem Klimov is a senses-shattering plunge into the dehumanizing horrors of war. As Nazi forces encroach on his small village in Belorussia, teenage Flyora (Alexei Kravchenko, in a searing depiction of anguish) eagerly joins the Soviet resistance. Rather than the adventure and glory he envisioned, what he finds is a waking nightmare of unimaginable carnage and cruelty—rendered with a feverish, otherworldly intensity by Klimov’s subjective camera work and expressionistic sound design. Nearly blocked from being made by Soviet censors, who took seven years to approve its script, Come and See is perhaps the most visceral, impossible-to-forget antiwar film ever made. Blu-ray special edition features • New 2K digital restoration by Mosfilm, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • New interview with cinematographer Roger Deakins • New interview with director Elem Klimov’s brother and frequent collaborator German Klimov • Flaming Memory, a three-film documentary series from 1975–77 by filmmaker Viktor Dashuk featuring firsthand accounts of survivors of the genocide in Belorussia during World War II • Interview from 2001 with Elem Klimov • Interviews from 2001 with actor Alexei Kravchenko and production designer Viktor Petrov • How “Come and See” Was Filmed, a 1985 short film about the making of the film featuring interviews with Elem Klimov, Kravchenko, and writer Ales Adamovich • Theatrical rerelease trailer • New English subtitle translation