Being a Russian, which means that I was raised on epic WWII movies a lot of which I came to simply love for many reasons besides great acting and plot, I have to admit that this one became my favorite.As you must have read from other comments, this movie has nothing to do with what most people expect from war movie: no propaganda, no superheros, no battle scenes. In fact the war makes just an environmental case here. The movie is all about characters and the plot that keeps you tense to the end. IMO these factors make it a fairly international movie.

This is one of the best modern war films I have ever seen. Surprisingly, it was made in 2001, which wasn't the best time to make films related to World War II. The actors were brilliant, especially during the standoff scene when the spies and the soldiers "bumped" into each other in the forest. I believe this film correctly portrays the events of WW2 and the actions of soldiers from the red army's special forces.The events of that war made everyone do extraordinary things which now may seem as unlikely, but people have to remember that it wasn't just about winning, but survival.

I like war history and like to watch war movies. This one, in my opinion, is nothing more that a very unbelivable story about supermen from special secret police forces which seek an enemy intelligence group in Belorussian forests. The movie is full of historcal and technical mistakes, actors' works except of one are poor, the one is Chief of Food Depot which is absolutely perfect but only about one minute long. All action goes about three houses, two glades and one truck. For me the most puzzle is where the declared something about 40-million US $ budget for the movie was spent?

This is one of the best war movies I have ever seen. Forget Private Ryan, forget G.I. Jane, forget Platoon or Born of 4th of July. These Belarusians have made a brilliant thriller, with perfect cinematography, fine acting and almost perfect editing. And, which is very important, there is no any propaganda here. This is not "Germans-are-so-bad, the-others-so good" kind of movie.It is simply good entertainment - one of the same kind as "U-571", for example.