Retratos de uma Guerra

Such a hard topic and they really didn't show us anything...wish they would make a better story.

Greetings from Lithuania.

Finally i saw a Lithuanian movie (most of it), which is the one that can definitely be safely shown abroad without embarrassment to itself. And the movie is "Ashes in the Snow" (2018). This is a highly solidly directed, acted, written, filmed and edited movie. It tells a true story and stories. My grandfather was one of those who witnessed and survived this experience on his own, luckily, he did come back.

Overall, "Ashes in the Snow" represent a good Lithuania cinema. Not some stupid pseudo / comedies for with same faces all over again targeted for same audiences trailers of which to even witness in a cinema feels like embarrassment. Not our "Tarantino" wannabe directors crime / comedies of a genre which faded away from cinema more then a decade ago - but in our country feels fresh!

"Ashes in the Snow" is the one who should be seen for all true movie lovers around the world. Great Lithuania cinema.

'Ashes in the Snow' is a war drama that tugs at the heartstrings. Note, this is not a film about soldiers on the battlefield. Instead, it concentrates on how it affects the people, and in particular Lithuanians.

One can only cringe at the inhumane things humans did during war, simply because their government expected it of them. It turned ordinary men into coldblooded killers. This film also showed us the reluctant soldiers. Men who found themselves in situations they dreaded. Yet, they still had orders to follow...

The acting is very good, especially Bel Powley as heroin Lina. We follow her family as they are taken from the comfort of their home, to a six-week long harrowing journey on a train, to a prison camp in Siberia, and finally to the freezing Laptev Sea. This is an emotional and heartfelt journey sure to set emotions in motion.

It's really important to understand the atrocities and oppression of the Russian government over Eastern Europeans. This film takes place during World War II but even under the Tsar/Czar in the late 1800's and early 1900's, Russia was trying to erase Lithuanian and other conquered cultures with such things as Banning the local language and books.

This film shows us that the Russians were not much better than the Nazis when it came to concentration/labor camps. Without spoilers, it's heartbreaking and horrible what they did to millions of people from the 1930s to the 1950s. I have Lithuanian family who were deported to Siberia and not released for 15 years! Watching this you will understand what they say and so many went through.

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. Switching on subtitles during key scenes was nice, some of the mumbling with an accent was hard to understand.

This story is "inspired" by real events which means it is a fictional story representative of what happened back then, the 1940s, when Stalin's USSR was invading Eastern European countries and labeling residents as enemies, gathering them up and sending them to harsh labor camps. This story focuses on Lithuanians.

Bel Powley is the main focus, even though the actress was 25 or 26, she plays 16-yr-old Lina who has a knack for art - drawing, painting, these types of art. She is self-taught but her father hopes to get her admission to a formal art school. Right then, just after she receives her acceptance letter, is when her family and many others are forced into trucks then trains and shipped off to labor camps.

Of course part of the movie is to show how brutal the Soviets were but the main part is to show how people can work to maintain their dignity in such trying times. Interestingly, in the credits are a long list of "extras" who had ties to ancestors who had been imprisoned and mistreated during those times.

Good movie although hard to watch at times.