Exodus [DVD]

Exodus or more accurately `Burnt by the Sun 2 - Exodus' is Nikita Mikhalkov's follow up to his Oscar winning 1994 `Burnt by the Sun'Burnt By The Sun [1994] [DVD]. He produces, writes and stars in this as he did in the first part. You do not need to have seen the first part to get this, but it will help to contextualise. Mikhalkov plays Col/general Sergei Kotov, he has been caught up in one of Stalin's' many purges and we find him here being held as an article 58 political prisoner, it is 1941 and so five years on from when he last saw his daughter. This is played by ..... yes his real daughter, who did so in the earlier film too - Nadezhda Mikhalkov (she should now be thirteen but is in fact twenty three). He is about to be transferred to a criminal status of article 129, when as luck would have it the Germans attack in CGI planes and destroy the entire camp except for Kotov and his intellectually challenged son.

The story flits between his story and that of his daughter, who is now a `pioneer' who refuses to denounce her father and is approached by Stalin's henchman and former friend Arsentyev (Oleg Menshikov - in both films) and told her father is still alive. She meanwhile is evacuated from the camp as the Germans advance. In the confusion she gets herself into a number of tight spots which would be plot spoilers if I told you, but you do start to think that even as a cat her nine lives must be quite near to being up at one point. She is now trying to be reunited with her father and he keeps wanting to get back to her, so the scene is sort of set.

Meanwhile father and son have teamed up with a penal battalion (not actually formed until 1942) and take on the full might of the Germans in a very excellent battle sequence with no CGI and real actors, tanks etc.

There is an attempt to be balanced, except where Stalin is concerned, we have soldiers converting to Christianity and Islam, there are some reasonably un cardboard cut out Germans, but it does not hang together well in places. I was reminded of `Come and see' Come and See [DVD]at one point where we have a barn burning incident, but without the raw emotion evinced in that earlier film.

This was panned in Russia and bombed at the box office, despite this being one of the biggest production budgets ever for a film (think Pearl Harbor). It has been criticised for the historical inaccuracies, the painfully obvious plot holes and the lack of any form of subtlety (much in evidence in the slow but brooding `Burnt by the Sun').It has also been criticised for having a version of the war too close to the 'official' version.

It is sprawling, it is not really epic and I am a bit concerned that nowhere on the packaging are we told about the first part. This may be an attempt to distance it from the previous work or sell it here as a war film. It does have battle scenes, there is a lot of gore and some of it is well done, but you do have to suspend belief a bit. If you can do that there is a good 146 minute film. That said I did quite enjoy it, the ending is awkward and we are told `End of Part One'. Well it should be part two and judging by how this was received in Russia and America, I thought part 3 would not be made, but it is already out in the US and is called 'The Citadel'. Nearly four stars but probably three and a half, but for the sake of rating this is just OK.

This film is in my opinion one of the greatest films to ever have come out of Russia. It certainly stands head and shoulders above some of the more well-publicised war movies we've recently produced in the west. It will leave you full of memories of scenes either tragic, moving, magical or gut-renching, and if you watch it in sections as I did, you'll find yourself longing just to find out what happens next. The camera work is incredible, the way certain scenes unfold is testament to the incredible creative vision of the filmmaker, the acting is so very convincing, the sense of menace in some scenes is spot on, and I look forward to watching the just-ordered sequel "The Citadel" in the next few weeks when it arrives. Whatever you do, go buy this now and watch it.

This film's failure in Russian cinemas may well be due to its contrast to the official Russian view of the Great Fatherland War, because 'Exodus' shows there were good and bad on both sides. For instance a Red Cross barge full of Russian wounded is sunk by Luftwaffe Stukas simply because a stupid soldier on board fires a flare at one of them when they are just doing practice runs on the barge. It does not hide German atrocities either, far from it, but was nevertheless perhaps too balanced for the audiences? It even shows a German tank driver with a sense of humour, jokingly handing out a bar of chocolate to a Russian soldier trying to stop the tank with his bayonet! But there are lots of strong and realistic battle scenes here. Some are hard to watch, others moving, others again both. Like the dying badly burnt 19 year old tank man in the film's final scenes, whose simple last wish is so pure and tender.

'Exodus' is perhaps best viewed as part 2 of a triology including 'Burnt By The Sun' and 'Citadel', but also stands well on its own. A full five stars from me.