Well, I was very eager to see this film after seeing "9-ya rota" few months ago, and as much as I liked the latter - I was so disappointed with "Svolochi". First of all, this film is not a war drama. Yes, it ends with a sabotage action, it happens during a WWII times, but it is more drama than a war genre. From its beginning we get to meet bunch of (probably) homeless, parent-less boys, simply trying to survive in the starving war-time Russia. In pursuit of food nothing can stop them, and they don't hesitate to kill anyone standing in their way without mercy. No, they're not ruthless murderers, not yet, but given a chance to grow up - they will become one. Some of them got caught, and they were sentenced to death. However, in the same time, Soviet military is trying to build a special one-time-use commando groups, consisting of such underage criminals. So the boys are given a chance to "redeem their crimes against Soviet Union". They went through extensive training on a deserted, remote base, where friendship and partnership ties bind some of them. Once the training is over, they are sent on a suicide mission to destroy German gasoline supplies somewhere in Romania (IIRC), and here we get to the point, where the entire movie's premises become unbelievable. I can understand that the Soviet military wouldn't hesitate to use children as soldiers, but its highly unlikely that they would have ever sent bunch of kids - no matter how well trained - on a mission of such importance. Nevertheless, the boys are sent to action, where their entire platoon is wiped out while still in the air on parachutes. Guess this: the commanding officer sacrificed all of them just to enhance survival chance of his 2 favorite boys! Thats another unbelievable hole in a script, but there's more: the two favorites somehow managed to accomplish their mission, destroyed the enormous gasoline supplies, and escaped unharmed! I know, sounds like a teenage Rambos ;) Well, I must add, that one of them does get hurt after all, but neither the landmine, nor the giant avalanche can touch them. If not for these unbelievable Hollywood-style twists of the action, I would have like this flick. Don't get me wrong - the performance by most of the boys is strong, the cinematography is good, the special effects are sufficient, but what kills this movie are those little nifty unbelievable things, where the film loses its credentials of serious film-making. And thats where I have to say I'm sorry to Mr.Atanesyan and Mr.Kunin: I don't buy your story at all.
3/10
3/10