A selection of the 10 best films for Victory Day
Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War is celebrated in Russia on May 9. In honor of the holiday, Izvestia recalled 10 films telling about the tragic events of the 1940s from different angles. The selection includes domestic and foreign films that tell about the horrors of war and the heroism of people.
"The Fate of Man" (1959)
In the center of the plot is the chauffeur Andrei Sokolov, whose life collapses overnight with the outbreak of war: he is forced to leave his family, gets wounded at the front, gets captured by the Germans, and then goes to a concentration camp. The hero manages to escape, but he immediately learns about the death of his wife and daughters at the hands of the Nazis. Meeting with the street boy Vanya after the end of the war becomes the starting point of a new life for Sokolov and gives him hope.
A classic of Soviet cinema and the directorial debut of Sergei Bondarchuk, in which he also played the main role. "The Fate of Man" is based on the short story of the same name by the cult writer Mikhail Sholokhov. The film won a Big Gold Prize at the first Moscow International Film Festival in 1959, as well as in Czechoslovakia and Minsk.
The painting tells in detail about the tragedy of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War and describes the full scale of the horror that the war brought. This is a touching story about how a man, even if he has lost everything he had, can find the strength to move on.
The rating on IMDb is 7.9, on Kinopoisk — 8.5.
"Life is Beautiful" (1997)
Guido, an eccentric Italian of Jewish origin, turns his imprisonment in a concentration camp into a "game" for his young son. This is how he tries to save the child's psyche from the horror of the mass executions of Jews carried out by the Third Reich. Guido explains to the boy that what is happening is a competition in which you can get a whole tank to win.
Roberto Benigni, who directed the film and starred in it, created an incredible fusion of tragedy and farce thanks to the mood swings in the narrative. The first half of the film is a sparkling romantic comedy, the second is a brutal drama about the Holocaust.
The film won the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival and three Academy Awards. Of these, one went to the composers for the soundtrack, and two went to Benigni personally for Best Actor and best Foreign language film.
The rating on IMDb is 8.6, on Kinopoisk — 8.6.
"Brest Fortress" (2010)
The plot is built around the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress, which took the first blow on June 22, 1941. The story is told by Sasha Akimov, who at the time of the attack was a 12-year-old musician in a platoon of the 333rd Infantry Regiment. The three key pockets of resistance to the Germans are led by regimental commander Peter Gavrilov, Commissar Yefim Fomin and the head of the 9th border post, Andrei Kizhevatov.
Alexander Kott's film is a joint project between Russia and Belarus. He has collected numerous awards, including the FSB, Golden Eagle and Nika awards.
Avoiding excessive pathos, the painting accurately reproduces the tragic events of the first days of the war and the courage of the defenders of the Brest Fortress. And the film also has a stellar cast.: Andrey Merzlikin, Pavel Derevyanko, Evgeny Tsyganov, Anatoly Kot and others. The title song was written by Leonid Agutin.
The rating on IMDb is 7.4, on Kinopoisk it is 8.1.
"Dunkirk" (2017)
France, 1940. The Allied armies are surrounded and pressed against the sea near the city of Dunkirk. There are about 400,000 soldiers trapped, and an urgent evacuation is required. Through three time lines — land (week), sea (day) and air (hour) — the film shows a desperate operation to rescue soldiers from the advancing German troops. Time becomes the main opponent.
Christopher Nolan's innovative approach to war cinema: minimal dialogue, maximum immersion. The film is based on a real evacuation from Dunkirk, but tells about the event without the usual large-scale battles and heroic monologues for the genre. The viewer is pressed for almost two hours by the lack of time in literally everything. In addition to this, discomfort is created by the constant ticking of the metronome in the background.
The film once stunned critics and viewers with its approach to filming. For this, the film was awarded three Oscars — in the nominations "Best Sound", "Best Editing", and "Best Sound Editing".
The rating on IMDb is 7.8, on Kinopoisk — 7.3.
"Ascension" (1976)
The film takes place in the winter of 1942 in occupied Belarus. The partisans Sotnikov (a teacher) and Rybak (a career soldier) go in search of food for the detachment. Once in the hands of the enemy, they are faced with a terrible choice that will forever separate them on different sides.
Larisa Shepitko's film is a deep psychological drama, a mystical parable about the nature of betrayal and heroism. The painting itself is a clear allusion to the Bible and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The film is based on the novel "Sotnikov" by Soviet and Belarusian writer Vasil Bykov.
"Ascension" became the first Soviet film to be awarded the Golden Bear, the highest award of the Berlin Film Festival. If you are more interested in the psychology of war veterans among the paintings about the Second World War, the story of Sotnikov is an ideal choice.
The rating on IMDb is 8.2, on Kinopoisk — 8.2.
"For reasons of conscience" (2016)
The true story of Desmond Doss, an American pacifist physician who refuses to take up arms for religious reasons. In the rear, he is considered a coward, and he faces a court martial. However, during the bloody battle of Okinawa, it is he who single-handedly saves 75 wounded comrades left on the battlefield.
Mel Gibson, despite a series of scandals around himself, shot a powerful biopic about faith, principles and the price of one human life in war. The plot describes the feat of the first ideological deviant in American history, who was awarded the highest military award — the Medal of Honor.
Starring the excellent Andrew Garfield, who has become well accustomed to the role of a fighter fighting for his beliefs.
The rating on IMDb is 8.1, and on Kinopoisk it is 8.2.
"Come and See" (1985)
As in "Ascension," the setting is German—occupied Belarus, but in 1943. Teenager Fleur finds an old carbine and joins a partisan detachment, dreaming of exploits. However, instead of fame, he becomes a witness to the horrific punitive action of the Nazis, which turned his life into a nightmare. In two days, the boy turns gray and ages before his eyes.
Elem Klimov has created a film that many viewers are unable to watch to the end. This is a ruthless and naturalistic anti—war painting - a concentrate of pain and fear of war through the eyes of a child. Moreover, the tape is shocking not by the specific actions of the characters, but by abstract scenes that look like one continuous emotion of horror.
The film won the Golden Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival, as well as an award at the 74th Venice Film Festival for the best restored film.
The rating on IMDb is 8.3, on Kinopoisk — 8.3.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
In occupied France, Lieutenant Aldo Rein gathers a group of Jewish soldiers whose goal is not just to fight, but to physically exterminate the Nazis. At the same time, the young owner of the cinema, Shoshanna, comes up with a plan to kill the entire leadership of the Third Reich, including Hitler, during the premiere of a propaganda film.
The legendary Quentin Tarantino rewrites history in his hypertrophied style: cruelty, absurd humor and a grand finale. At the same time, the picture, although it resembles satire, is soaked through with hatred of Nazi ideology — it only shows it through sarcasm and youthful maximalism of the director.
As always in Tarantino's films, Inglourious Basterds has a stellar cast.: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Til Schweiger and August Diehl, famous for "The Master and Margarita". The film also has one Oscar, which was awarded to Waltz for his strong role as Nazi officer Hans Landa.
The rating on IMDb is 8.4, on Kinopoisk — 8.0.
"There was a War Tomorrow" (1987)
The action takes place in 1940, a year before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. Ordinary Soviet high school students study, fall in love, and try to be "proper" Komsomol members. Their world is collapsing not from shells, but from the news that the father of one of the students has been declared an "enemy of the people."
The film adaptation of Boris Vasiliev's novel of the same name is a rare film for the Soviet screen about the events shortly before the war. This is a touching drama about the cost of growing up and the doomed youth of a generation that "had a war tomorrow."
There are no battles or heroic deeds in the picture. However, there is a constant sense of impending tragedy. That's just what the audience knows about her, not the heroes of the tape.
The rating on IMDb is 7.7, on Kinopoisk it is 8.1.
"The Pianist" (2002)
This is the story of Polish musician of Jewish origin Vladislav Szpilman. The film takes the viewer through all the circles of hell of the Second World War: from the bombing of Warsaw to the atrocities of the Nazis in the Jewish ghettos. Instead of an honorable career as a pianist, the hero is forced to survive in the ruins of the city. Completely alone.
Holocaust survivor director Roman Polanski has made the most personal film of his career. The work of Adrian Brody, who lost 13 kg for the role and learned Chopin's compositions, earned him an Oscar for Best Actor. The film itself won this award in the nominations "Best Director" and "Best Screenplay".
"The Pianist" is another film that reveals the tragedy of the war through the deprivation of people in the territories occupied by the Nazis. Brody, whom viewers are used to seeing in the image of strong people, adequately shows on the screen a man who has lost everything.
The rating on IMDb is 8.5, on Kinopoisk — 8.5.
On May 3, REN TV channel presented a new season of the series "SMERSH", dedicated to the secret operations of Soviet counterintelligence against the special services of the Third Reich. The script of the new episodes is based on real historical facts, including the mining of Moscow in 1941 and attempts to disrupt the offensive operation Bagration in 1944. For the sake of historical authenticity, the creators of the project used real museum exhibits in the filming.
On May 5, Medialogia presented the results of the Russian series rating for the first quarter of 2026. The absolute leader was the project "Very Strange Things", which scored 15,948 points. In second place is the series "Lilies of the Valley" (8829), and in third place is "The First Department" (7745). The fourth place was taken by the anime "Magic Battle" with 6419 points, and "Sled" rounded out the top five with 3563 points.
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