A film set during World War 2 that’s hailed by fans as “haunting” and among the best ever made is streaming now in the UK. The Ascent (1977) is a Soviet drama that focuses on two Soviet partisans, Sotnikov (played by Boris Plotnikov) and Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin), who head toward a Nazi-occupied Belarus searching for supplies for their starving unit.

They manage to aquire a farm animal to sustain their fellow fighters, but are spotted on the way back by Nazi soldiers, sparking a gun battle and a desperate attempt to escape to safety. The film was directed by renowned Ukrainian-born Soviet filmmaker Larisa Shepitko. Shepitko tragically died in a car crash two years after The Ascent was released, while scouting locations for her next film, but her final work is still hailed as a seminal piece of cinema almost half a century later.

Saying with its “many references to the Crucifixion, the story takes on heroic proportions glorifying the sufferings of the martyr and his influence on future generations”, lauding it as a “remarkable piece of work”.

Another said: “This intense dramatic examination of the effect of battle on two soldiers thrown together by the circumstances of World War II is brutal and often difficult to watch; it is a black and white film, and since most of the action occurs in the snow, it sometimes approaches the look of an abstract painting.”

A third added: “The slow development of the characters, and the emphasis on their complicated relationships to each other, are somewhat reminiscent of The Commissar, another great Soviet film.

“The Ascent deserves a second watching, as well as a third, and a tenth. It continues to provide interesting ideas, beautiful images, and emotional complexity.”

A fourth said: “Having just seen this, I find it hard to believe that it is not better known. This and the slightly-better-known, but almost-as-shamefully-neglected COME AND SEE (Klimov, 1986) must be two of the greatest war films.

“They are meaningful, powerful, incisive. THE ASCENT is also gifted with a sparingly-used, but brilliantly trenchant score by Schnittke.”

The film has a 12 certificate on the British Board of Film Certification (BBFC) website, but contains moderate violence, language, suicide references, a scene of hanging, and threat, so viewer discretion is advised.

The Ascent is streaming now on Amazon Prime.

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