If you're expecting a film like Fortress of War (2010), you're mistaken just like i was because this is a biographical film focusing on Lyudmila Pavlichenko who's a Soviet Union female sniper with 309 confirmed kills. I agree with the other reviewer who said that the title's quite misleading, this film's not mainly about the battle in Sevastopol itself. I don't understand why they didn't get a more befitting title for this film.With a non-linear storytelling style, this film shows the beforemath, the moment and the aftermath of the fearsome superiority of Pavlichenko aka "Lady Death" who hunted regular soldiers and officers in a battlefield during World War II. Yulia Peresild, who played Pavlichenko managed to portray the character really well. She's cold, suffering, heroic, and lovable, kinda reminds me of Mulan. I have to tell you the Russian dubbing for English parts are annoying, they should make Russian subtitles instead of dubbing. The war action scenes (shooting, camouflaging, covering, planning strategy, etc) even though interesting are too short which i'd estimate no more than 10% of the duration so it's overall drama and that's very unsatisfying.So if you like films about snipers such as Enemy At The Gates, American Sniper, you have to check this one out. I'd say this is isn't as good as Enemy At The Gates but it's as interesting as American Sniper.7/10

The first 30 minutes movie was actually pretty good. But then the movie transformed into romantic drama with war moving into background. Lady Death's romance took up about 60% of the movie, with 20% being war and 20% being her time in the U.S. Why not take the opportunity to focus on her time as a soldier, rather than her time as a "woman"? That being said the good parts were well done and it's hard to believe that the scenes were done with such a limited budget. I think a remake should be made with much more funding and a different director.The movie fell well short of its potential and I would not recommend the movie.

First of all the movie is misnamed. It is no more about the battle for Sevastopol than Dr. Zhivago was about the Russian Revolution. A better title might have been, "Lyudmila's War." This was an excellent character study of the battle between the inhumanity of war and the humanity of the people who are forced to wage it. I found the film to be very well done and once into it, had to see it through. The war scenes were vivid and believable, and the characters were played realistically. One could see the changes that overcame the heroine, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who was initially tepid about killing but warmed to the task--to the point of actually relishing in it. She reveled in competing with men--even in an environment that was nominally committed to gender equality. We witnessed a transformation from a studious girl, who was never appreciated by her stern military father, to a killing machine (who refused to leave the battlefield, even when seriously wounded)--with snatches of the frailties of emerging womanhood. It is a complex tale, one that should be watched at least twice to realize its full impact.

I think that it is quite a decent war movie, at par or better than "Enemy at the gates". There is very good performance for the main character. Cliché of Soviet communist organizer in US; but movie shall have a non good communist character, as real life had at the time. Very chilling and excellent scene of 10 year old girl reciting "Kill German" poem, and in all likelihood the girl was killed herself few months down the road. I waiting for English version to show to my friends, but translation going to be very difficult and will result in lower quality - a lot of important subtle messages in the movie is use of Russian, Ukranian dialect of Russian, and Ukranian languages, as well as some subtle elements to Russian-Jewish culture.