1944

1944, Estonia. The country had passed to one army and then the other, and both sides took soldiers from it. In the first half of the film there is Karl; he is in the Estonian division of the German army, holding a position on the Sinimäed hills. In the trenches opposite are men speaking his own language. In the second half the narrative changes sides and follows Jüri, in the Estonian corps of the Red Army. The same war, the same villages, another uniform. A letter passes between the two men. Elmo Nüganen directs. Kaspar Velberg, Kristjan Üksküla, Maiken Pius and Gert Raudsep are in the cast. It is an Estonian production. The narrative follows the real fighting from the summer of 1944 to November, from the defence of the Sinimäed hills to the fall of the Sõrve peninsula. Estonians on both sides had been conscripted by force, and the film says so directly. The matter it treats is having no choice; nobody picked the side he fought on. Changing the main character halfway is an unusual structure and leaves the viewer off balance. The combat scenes are realist and build no heroism. The film found a wide audience in Estonia and became one of the country's most discussed war productions. The narrative also visits civilian life; deported families are inside the story. The ending leaves both sides with nothing. Its limit is context; the sides run together for anyone unfamiliar with the region's history and the characters separate late. Who it is for: viewers curious about war films and Eastern European history. Who it is not for: it is dark, complicated, and the ending bitter.