Battle for Sevastopol

The producer was able to pull the Russia-Ukraine title all in one piece despite the events of 2014 in Kiev. Probably the bulk of the scenes was shot in 2013.

The storyline goes on about a true WW2 Red Army female sniper with the highest confirmed hit list ever. Check out the Wikipedia.

A sad personal drama wound into the 1941 context when Wehrmacht was advancing in Southern Ukraine, USSR.

With a moderate budget, as it appears to me, the makers were restricted to a moderate combined arms warfare footage, but of a very decent quality.

Most moving is the tragedy of the main character who lives through the first two years of war and a personal tragedy.

It is not a blockbuster action-filled war theme that must be a dangling carrot for a moviegoer but rather a biographical sniper daily routine and mentality.

On seeing the movie I was a bit puzzled why its name bears "Battle for Sevastopol" as it is only touched upon.

A mind-blowing alternative to the American Sniper. You decide on your own.

To give us the single view from a member of the army and how the woman behind the gun went on to become who she became (soldier, reformist sort of and a person of "interest" or at least of some pull, concerning her voice), might have gone wrong, but the movie itself handles everything smoothly.

That doesn't mean the ascend of the sniper is smooth. There are bumps and other hurdles she has to take. And her character gets tested too. The feeling of empowerment, the feeling of revenge, the feeling of love and sadness. It might seem like a roller-coaster ride at times, but it's not like feelings are just dismissed like that. They are there and there are periods where we feel certain things we might be ashamed of later. That doesn't make us less of human beings. Flaws are in us, it's ourselves who have to overcome them ...

I think that it is quite a decent war movie, at par or better than "Enemy at the gates". There is very good performance for the main character. Cliché of Soviet communist organizer in US; but movie shall have a non good communist character, as real life had at the time. Very chilling and excellent scene of 10 year old girl reciting "Kill German" poem, and in all likelihood the girl was killed herself few months down the road. I waiting for English version to show to my friends, but translation going to be very difficult and will result in lower quality - a lot of important subtle messages in the movie is use of Russian, Ukranian dialect of Russian, and Ukranian languages, as well as some subtle elements to Russian-Jewish culture.

I would like to share with you my thoughts. First of all I loved the film. You get real war movie. The visuals was not really trouble. Although less spectacular element in it. Instead of a serious war drama I could compare the film. What WWII was transposed to the environment. The characters were well developed and realistic. Real emotion could be seen on their faces. What I liked even more the use of the camera. Very simple scenes have been able to make it interesting. It maintains the interest in the story. I would not compare this film to the film Enemy at the Gates. Those who look to a slower but more emotional love war drama to expect.

If you're expecting a film like Fortress of War (2010), you're mistaken just like i was because this is a biographical film focusing on Lyudmila Pavlichenko who's a Soviet Union female sniper with 309 confirmed kills. I agree with the other reviewer who said that the title's quite misleading, this film's not mainly about the battle in Sevastopol itself. I don't understand why they didn't get a more befitting title for this film.

With a non-linear storytelling style, this film shows the beforemath, the moment and the aftermath of the fearsome superiority of Pavlichenko aka "Lady Death" who hunted regular soldiers and officers in a battlefield during World War II. Yulia Peresild, who played Pavlichenko managed to portray the character really well. She's cold, suffering, heroic, and lovable, kinda reminds me of Mulan. I have to tell you the Russian dubbing for English parts are annoying, they should make Russian subtitles instead of dubbing. The war action scenes (shooting, camouflaging, covering, planning strategy, etc) even though interesting are too short which i'd estimate no more than 10% of the duration so it's overall drama and that's very unsatisfying.

So if you like films about snipers such as Enemy At The Gates, American Sniper, you have to check this one out. I'd say this is isn't as good as Enemy At The Gates but it's as interesting as American Sniper.

7/10