The Star: The Russian WW2 Experience

The Star (Zvezda) is director Nikolai Lebedev's film adaptation of a short story of the same name by Emmanuil Kazakevich. It concerns the brave young men and women, Russian intelligence officers sent to work behind enemy lines in World War II. It features Aleksei Kravchenko who portrayed the shell-shocked young boy in Elem Klimov's Come and See (1985). Though he didn't act again until 1998, Kravchenko won a special government award for his role in The Star.

It is the summer of 1944 and the Nazi Armies are preparing their massive Tank Division named Viking for a surprise offensive on occupied Russian land. However, the Russian Army's special group of seven snipers named Zvezda are sent for a reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines in Poland. Two previous Russian groups never came back and these seven men realise that they are being sent to an almost certain death in order to end the war sooner...

Read my review of this DVD edition by clicking here