Fortress of War

Produced in honour of the Red Army soldiers defending the USSR Western borders, Fortress of War recounts historical events combined with fictitious chronicles surrounding the June 1941 siege of the Brest Fortress in Sothern Belorussia against the invading Wehrmacht Army Group Centre forces in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa.

This historical event is creatively accompanied by reminiscing narration from an orphaned 15-year old boy named Sasha Akimov. His narration ties together three main defensive stages led by real life Soviet war heroes centered on the resistance zones holding out against the protracted German siege. One location is headed by regiment commander Pyotr Gavrilov (Aleksandr Koshunov) another by the political commissar Yefim Fomin (Pavel Derevyanko) and lastly the head of the 9th frontier outpost, Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov (Andrey Merzlikin). All three have a different story to tell.

The film begins in an archetypal peaceful, though nervous per-war Belorussia in the summer of 1941. The heavy military presence contained in Brest, notably its historic 19th century fortress, explains the current political situation in the country following the Nazi conquest of Western Europe and the Politburo's rightful suspicions of Hitler next intended target. The focal characters are simultaneously introduced intermediately around Sasha's observational narration. The ensuing bombardment by Wehrmacht artillery and brutal assault comes with-out warning and is unleashed with fuming panic. The film thus continues along a direction of separate combat charges and defensive manoeuvres. These numerous skirmishes and scuffles between the two opposing armies are effective, edgy and well-staged. All the combat scenes are extremely effective and mastered by the production team using special effects and pyrotechnics to their full advantage. Because the film was produced by the Belarusfilm Company and in truth many of the cast and crew either lived or parents lived through the nightmare of the Wehrmacht invasion and resultant onslaught of the population, the accuracy to detail is visually authentic and at no point attempts to introvert away from the brutality faced by their ancestral soldiers or civilians during these troubled times. Yet, it does not go unnoticeable that this film contains blotches of patriotism and benevolence. The narration shifts between characters and their dilemmas in the three separate defensive locations at the beginning may appear to be unclear and confusing. Nevertheless, through skillful editing and directing as the film moves along at a steady peace the separate stories begin to coalesce into one and by no means are a distraction.

In summary, Fortress of War is a first-rate factual dramatised war movie which subjects its audience to the brave climatic struggle for survival and once again is another example of the evolving historical films from the Counties brutalised by ideology fuelled hatred and genocide that was the Second World War.

In case you've come upon this movie by accident, I'd suggest you go ahead and watch it, and then return return back to read the reviews.

The Brest Fortress pushes war movies to a completely different level of realism, poetry and emotional force. It is so visceral, so real and so emotionally powerful that by the end you're part of the battle and no longer a detached viewer. Not a single shot is wasted, not a single line of dialog is a filler, not a single acting even from extras feels like acting, not a single moment do you feel that this is a movie and not real life. The makeup, the wounds, the dirt, the blood, everything is real and it all hits you with one of the best cinematography in a war movie since Ivan's Childhood. And The Brest Fortress pays homage to that great movie in many ways.

Russians suffered unimaginable horrors during WWII and that trauma in their psyche along with their great heritage of story telling and great cinema combines to create another great Russian war movie.

I feel privileged to have watched this movie, knowing that its still unknown in the west, there is not even a wikki page about it yet.

War movies based on true events are always something special because you can feel the suffering and the absurdity of war. Most of World War II movies are about well known battles like Normandy, Obama Beach, The Ardennes and so on, but I prefer watching more unknown battles because they have the right to be remembered also. In this movie we get another untold story about the Soviet troops defending the Brest fortress against the German Nazi invasion. We will never know how accurate those battles are. It's a Soviet movie so it might been shot as Soviet propaganda. But the least we can say is that this movie is very well done. Not the usual goodlooking Hollywood stars playing a war hero, but actual day-to-day normal looking people, like you and me, acting in some very captivating scenes. I don't know if those actors are famous in their fatherland but they sure did a hell of a good job. Probably not with a huge budget, they still managed to make it look pretty real. The story about this East front battle is special, sometimes told with a narrating voice of a kid that survived this hell, and will certainly have your attention. After Anthropoid and Kajaki, another great war movie that won't leave you without emotion.

Sunday shop in Asda Superstore Brighton UK. Always look at new DVD display. Full this week of USA horror and comedy Z movies. This shop also puts new foreign films with subtitles on the display, prices reduced as the lazy Brits still can't be botherd to read a subtitled film. What a lazy bunch some of us are, all though the Norwegion sub titled fun fest that is The Troll Hunter is pulling them in here in Brighton. I digress.I like true history, this film of the heroic defence of the Brest Fortress in June 1941 was something even at my age, 70 I had never heard of.Half way through, it's 138 mins long,I halt it for a cup of tea and said out loud, Hey a real film, no bloody CIC,no American crap heroics,and boy I am looking forward to seeing the rest.In my tea break I find that this fantastic heartbreaking true war film did not even get a UK cinema release. Disgraceful.All the performances are stunning, the film looks great on the wide print. Rent this and learn what barstards the Nazis really were. Highly recommended.

I don't like reading subtitles, but I will for a particularly good movie, and this certainly is one. I also don't normally gravitate toward war movies, but again, I'll make an exception for a good one, and I give this one a 9. It might be even better than that. There is so much for the eye here; I'm very impressed at the amount of work which must have gone into making every shot look so real. Also, the soundtrack was not overwhelming; for the most part, what we see is what carries the emotion, and that is a testament to the power of the events and the quality of the reconstruction of them for this movie.

There's a lot of violence, shooting, dying, etc. here, but not a lot of really nasty gore, which is something I appreciate. I'm sure the reality may have been even uglier than what is shown in this movie, but I don't need to see every last ounce of gore to know that war sucks and people get horribly maimed and killed. What is shown is enough to make the point well.

Very high quality movie; strongly recommended.