A convincing and brutal drama about the war's ugly and scary face, which is as much poignant as it is riveting and engrossing from start to finish.

The doomed fortress of the border town of Brest was built a hundred years before the first onset of German deceitful invasion into the Soviet land at early dawn of June 22, 1941. It had been changing hands several times before, notably in 1918 when it was surrendered to the Germans under notorious Brest Peace Treaty. It was released thereafter to the Poles, then liberated by the Red Army, then transferred to Poland again. Under the Polish administration the fortress was first affected by German air raid in 1939 and significantly damaged under the massive onslaught of the German troops.

Before the end of 1939 the city of Brest (and its fortress) was finally incorporated into the Soviet Union. By the commencement of war, the Brest fortress was a home to a number of Soviet military units - infantry battalions, reconnaissance and artillery regiments, miscellaneous attached units and troops, all-in-all up to 8000 servicemen and several hundreds of their families, wives and children were stationed therein.

The film starts unfolding peacefully on the eve of the war - a regular day in the lives of ordinary people in a military compound - orchestra rehearsals, dancing, shopping, kisses, Saturday evening film screening - the late peaceful everyday routine...

Persistent rumors that the Germans were cranking up preparations for a breakthrough on the border were considered as sabotage and eventually suppressed. But anticipation of imminent disaster was intensified by a particularly creepy late night scene of the special vanguard troops disguised in Soviet military uniform disembarking from a train following subdued German language orders.

Heavy artillery fire that all of a sudden pierced silence at the daybreak of June 22 instantly inflicted heavy human and material losses, disrupted communication, cut off power supply and destroyed military munitions. Followed by meticulously coordinated combat assault immediately afterward, it took the inhabitants by surprise and split the garrison into several relatively small and isolated pockets of nevertheless pretty fierce resistance.

Under massive German attacks the city was defeated fairly early, whereas the small number of the besieged Brest fortress survivors with scarce resources, deprived of food, water and medicine, and with narrowing hope for reinforcement or backing from the retreating regular forces, kept on defending the small plot of Soviet land against the invaders for many days.

Though the essence of the story is certainly a portrayal of the valor of Soviet soldiers that lost their lives defending the first citadel and symbol of Russian resistance, the film manages to avoid as much as possible worn-out heroic clichés and propagandistic pathos that were often compulsory elements even in the best examples of Soviet war movies of the past. Yet, unlike many politically engaged modern movies, it resists the temptation to deride the peculiarities of Soviet lifestyle of that time and to speculate on the popular issues of "Stalinist regime's atrocities".

Instead, the film focuses on accurate capturing of a full range of authentic human emotions from joy, love and devotion at the early beginning of the film through angst, fear and pain as it progresses to hopelessness and despair. It tells the frightening story of regular people, which lives were turned upside down overnight when they end up face to face with unstoppable deadly force menacing their families, their loved ones, their own lives and their country.

It pulls no punches when it comes to depiction of enormous destructions and horrors of war with first rate set designs and visually arresting special effects, but the main asset of the film is, of course, excellent nuanced performances from the entire cast especially the leads - Korshunov, Merzlikin and Derevyanko.

The story is told as if from the perspective of a teenage boy witnessing the outbreak of war and providing narration already as a war veteran that has survived the worst war in modern history. It may be emotionally draining cinematic experience for many viewers, but I believe it could be especially conducive for the younger generation to acquire better understanding of the actual tremendous price the nation has paid for the great Victory.

"Brestskaya krepost", a.k.a. "Fortress of War", is a great Russian-Belarusian war movie based on a true story and told through the eyes of the fifteen year-old boy Sashka Akimov (Alyosha Kopashov),the only survivor of the German massacre in the invasion of Soviet Union in 1941.

The screenplay narrates through Sashka´s eyes the pacific lives of the dwellers at the Brest Fortress and the preoccupation of a Red Army officer with the imminent war against .Germany. On the next morning, the location is bombarded by the German artillery, killing soldiers and civilians in the beginning of days of terror and resistance of the Soviet soldiers and civilians under siege of the German forces.

"Brestskaya krepost" is a film to be seen and re-seen, with magnificent performances and heartbreaking story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Resistência (2010)" ("The Resistance")

With Fedor Bondarchuk's STALINGRAD about to hit British cinemas - where it will be ripped apart by people who thought they were going to be watching an English language 3D war film featuring American movie stars - I thought I'd treat myself to a Russian war movie . Now despite the Soviets being the major factor in defeating the Nazis they're every bit as being guilty of flag waving jingoism as their Hollywood counterparts but when you consider the Soviet Union tags World War Two as " The great patriotic war 1941-45 " this is only to be expected

" Hey Theo didn't the war start in 1939 ? And didn't the Soviets invade Poland from the East a couple of weeks after the Nazis invaded from the West ? "

Now why'd you think I mentioned flag waving jingoism ? Anything Uncle Sam can do the Soviets could do better , including rewriting history in a manner George Orwell would instantly recognise . No one in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN feels the need to mention the British contribution except to have a dig at Monty dragging his feet . It's somewhat painful to notice that unless you're Polish no one can recall the double war whammy Poland had to endure in 1939

There is something very reactionary about FORTRESS OF WAR . I had to double check if this was the same film that the IMDb said was released in 2010 because it feels more Soviet than Russian . I don't dispute that it's based on true events but it does seem to play up a little too much on the courage of the political officers the Commissars who enforced military and more importantly party discipline on the Red Army . One can see the appeal of telling the courage of the defenders of the Brest fortress because it's not indicative of many of the Commissars in June 1941 who upon hearing of the Nazi invasion suddenly decided to flee to Moscow on party business leaving Red Army frontline units leaderless and at the mercy of the Nazis who it quickly transpired had no mercy for their Slav opponents . It does make the point that the Soviets were unprepared but you can't help thinking it may be an excuse rather than a point . The lack of preparations was down to panic mongers rather than the party hierarchy ? Hmmm I see

To be fair to the film it doesn't pull any punches as to what the Nazis did and while it doesn't shock in the way COME AND SEE shocked it is rather brutal, bloody stuff with an astronomical body count which is in keeping with the reality of that conflict that killed 35 million people in Eastern and Central Europe . In fact after the first half hour that sets up the characters it just becomes one long battle sequence , intermittently broken up by character moments where the occasional cliché raises its ugly head which may remind you of American war movies . One film I was reminded of was PEARL HARBOR when planes appear in the sky and start defying the laws of physics down to the fact they're obviously CGI. So in some ways FORTRESS OF WAR is détente in one movie where East meets West and the worst faults of Stalinism merges with the worst faults of American film making