I am somewhat of a student of the early history of Nazi and Soviet-Nazi terrors and abuses, and this is a reasonably accurate, well acted portrayal of a small aspect of that. The problem with this as a movie - is that there are no real heroes here. Nobody one would really root for. Evgenia Ginzburg was as much of a tyrannical thug as her captors - a group of people holding the "party line" - party insiders - who underpinned a ludicrous utopian philosophy that led to the death of millions. Through some infighting between communist factions, some met with the same fate as the millions of non-members they impoverished - not only in the USSR but in many other places besides. It was, for me, a bit like watching a documentary about infighting between Hitler and some rare Nazi opponents who attempted to undermine him - both sides leaving an equally bad taste in the mouth.
Review of Within the Whirlwind
