Stalingrad

Time Out says
The battle for Stalingrad remains the bloodiest conflict in human history: more than 850,000 people lost their lives over five months of dogged, street-to-street fighting in 1942 and 1943. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, film producers intermittently insist on attempting to shoehorn all this blood and fury into a populist, triumphal two-hour multiplex adventure. This latest Russian-language effort may introduce new elements – 3D, digital effects, a pointless framing device – but the key components remain unchanged: mud, brutality, starvation, sacrifice, misery, loss and grief.
This ‘Stalingrad’ focuses on five Russian soldiers holed up in a bombed-out house during a German air raid. Taking the place’s owner, shellshocked Masha (Yanina Studilina), under their collective wing, these mismatched heroes struggle to beat back the Nazi advance. There are some impressive moments: the oversaturated visuals frazzle the retinas, and there are some memorable explosions. But when the best one can say about a movie is that it’s pyrotechnically impressive, something important is missing. In this case it’s tension, originality and memorable characters.
Details
Release details
Cast and crew
Yanina Studilina
Mariya Smolnikova
Pyotr Fyodorov