WOW! What a powerful story about a period of history I knew nothing about. Stellar performances by the leads and the whole cast. I give this film an 8 (powerful history) out of 10. {Historical Drama}

For those that are unfamiliar with the history of Americans moving to Russia in the 1930s and the subsequent purge conducted by the madman Stalin, this film comes as quite a surprise. These people were idealists looking for a better life and what they found was misery, contempt, racism, hatred, and a murderous regime of historic proportions. The story of the main protagonist ending up in the Soviet union is a true heartbreaker. This film is very well done, the acting is superb, the direction is amazing, the cinematography is great and it is worth watching. But it is a difficult film to sit through due to the subject matter. Russia has a long history of being a Cossack empire ruled by murderous fools who are hell-bent on destruction, murder and torture. Some things never change and some of that remains to this day, with the dictator Putin and his blood thirsty henchmen.

Acting: 8 /Story: 7 /Production values: 6 /Suspence - Thriller level: 7 /Action: 0 /Mystery - unknown: 0 /Romance level: 6 /Film noir ~ neo-noir density: none /Comedy elements: 0 /Overall: 7