The heart of this dramatic story based on the novel by Leopold Lahola is the search for the principle of humanism. The story plays in a single day towards the end of World War II in a rough, snow-covered landscape where a German soldier escorts his prisoner with orders to shoot him. The background of the story is formed by the flashbacks of the partisan soldier being interrogated by a Russian commissar who wants to know all about him being taken prisoner. The German soldier Helmut Kampen escorts the captive partisan who is condemned to death but finally manages to flee. The commissar wants to know why the Germans did not kill him and accuses the partisan soldier of collaboration
Cinematography
Bleak Slovak winter becomes a character itself.
Acting
Igonda's restrained performance speaks volumes.
Writing
Lahola's novel adapted with painful moral precision.
Director
Patrik Lančarič
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Slovak cinema's quiet WWII tradition avoids heroics, focusing instead on compromised individuals caught between armies.
Lahola's novel was written under communist censorship; the film's 2007 release allowed fuller exploration of Soviet interrogation methods previously taboo.
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