The film is intriguing and has good acting, and is about an often-neglected part of WW2 history (partisans fighting in Ukraine against both the Nazis and the Soviets). That said, there are suspension-of-disbelief problems.
#1. How is the Canadian airman shot down, treated, and then allowed to somehow hang out solo with partisans without needing to report back or without anyone checking on his whereabouts? Besides initially saying he needs to get to Moscow and being unable to do so, there seems to be zero consequences for basically going AWOL.
#2. The airman decides to become a partisan fighter himself instead of an Allied airman...yet in spite of this basic desertion, is still in the Canadian military years later, to tell the story?
#3. The beautiful Ukrainian partisan fighter Oksana runs, heavily armed, through the woods, in a medium-length skirt. I doubt any female fighter would wear this as her common uniform.
#4. At the end, the airman says he did not know of the Ukrainian struggle during WW2 but now will never forget. Yet...he was fluent in Ukrainian when he enlisted? Is he Ukrainian-Canadian himself? If so, how was he unaware of the independence struggle?
#5 SPOILER: the border guard does not shoot him at the end. Why? What happens, does he just let him go?
These plausibility problems spoiled part of an otherwise great film. It's still worth a watch though.
#1. How is the Canadian airman shot down, treated, and then allowed to somehow hang out solo with partisans without needing to report back or without anyone checking on his whereabouts? Besides initially saying he needs to get to Moscow and being unable to do so, there seems to be zero consequences for basically going AWOL.
#2. The airman decides to become a partisan fighter himself instead of an Allied airman...yet in spite of this basic desertion, is still in the Canadian military years later, to tell the story?
#3. The beautiful Ukrainian partisan fighter Oksana runs, heavily armed, through the woods, in a medium-length skirt. I doubt any female fighter would wear this as her common uniform.
#4. At the end, the airman says he did not know of the Ukrainian struggle during WW2 but now will never forget. Yet...he was fluent in Ukrainian when he enlisted? Is he Ukrainian-Canadian himself? If so, how was he unaware of the independence struggle?
#5 SPOILER: the border guard does not shoot him at the end. Why? What happens, does he just let him go?
These plausibility problems spoiled part of an otherwise great film. It's still worth a watch though.
