Battle for Sevastopol

Lyudmila Pavlichenko is studying history at university when the war begins. She goes to the front as a sniper and serves in the defence of Odessa and Sevastopol. Her recorded number of hits passes three hundred. After she is wounded the Soviets send her to America: no longer a soldier but a figure speaking for the opening of a second front. The subject is not heroism but a person being converted into propaganda material. The best section is the American one: being asked constantly about her hair and her dress, and throwing that back at them at a certain point. The relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt forms the narrative's second line. The form moves between two times: the front and the tour. The war scenes are grey and cold, the American passages noticeably brighter, and the contrast is deliberate. It was made as a Russian-Ukrainian co-production and released at a time when relations between the two countries were breaking down. It appeared in Ukraine under a different title and which country it belonged to was argued over. Yulia Peresild leads, with Evgeny Tsyganov in the cast. Sergey Mokritsky directs. Who it is for: viewers interested in Second World War biography and the history of women soldiers. Who it is not for: anyone who will question the production's politics; the film sits close to the Soviet account.