richard6 Based on the novel by Emmanuil Kazakevich, The Star is a story focusing on a Soviet reconnaissance unit comprising of seven soldiers sent on a scouting mission behind enemy lines. The enemy is the German armed forces and the line is Eastern Poland, late summer 1944. The reconnaissance is required in order to gather intelligence concerning current German positions and strengths of counter attack indications.The scouting skills are demonstrated in a ghostly atmosphere effectively using the forest environment as cover. The film moves along at a nice pace and the story widens upon detection and advances through the interception of the scouts by the SS. What actually kills the scouts is their need to obtain a wireless in order to transmit their discovery of military information back to divisional headquarters. This they succeed at the cost of their lives. The film conspicuously emphasises that the soldiers fighting in the Soviet army were young men. This is demonstrated through the youthful and fresh appearances of the soldiers. Also, the film acknowledges the participation of young women enlisted into the Soviet army. The director, Nikolai Lebedev, deliberately indicates the human cost of war and the justification for the conflict and defeating their enemy. This point also exists in the screen play by Yevgeny Grigoriev, Nikolai Lebedev and Alexander Borodyansky and performed well by the actors. Their is no joy expressed in killing and regardless of nationality each life lost appears to strengthen the sadness of war.The Star has a satisfactory running time of 97 minutes. If I had to categories this picture it reminds me of "A Bridge On The River Kwai" or "The Guns Of Navarone" and "The Dirty Dozen". The qualities or attributes of hero's during the second world war. The Star, in the same manner, highlights the sacrifices of the Soviet nation. The style of the film is in the mold of many modern combat pictures. Also, cinematography concluding the demise of our screen hero's simulating "Saving Private Ryan", Brotherhood or even "The Alamo"! For these reasons a picture of this quality and authenticity deserved a marketed international release.The distraction of the sub-plot love story between the scout leader Travkin and wireless operator Katya did not several damage the accomplishment of the film. Even though this plot could be described as embarrassing and unnecessary, it helps apprehend, in a mildly unconvincing manner, the youthful conditions of still being a teenager, regardless of the terrifying surroundings. Evidently, the characters are between 17-20 years of age, expressing innocence and spirit of adolescence. "The Star" is effective, sharp and abrupt, at the same time as providing tension.

gest1969 I believe that war films should try to convey the terror of war, avoid idealism and respect some rudimentary military principles. Zvezda barely does the first. Zvezda being a Russian war film, I was expecting patriotism, sentimentality, beautiful poetic pictures, a lush score, Slavic cheekbones and cruel Germans. What I didn't need was the naive love non-affair, the unrealistically silly war scenes and the abuse of the syrupy soundtrack in a film which avoided carefully all historical or political references (Stalinism, Nazism, Holocaust) only to end on a passing but nonetheless insulting to our sense of history endnote about "liberating Poland". A missed opportunity as a film but not as propaganda apparently.

eviltrav What struck me about this film was how Very Russian it was. Having spent some time in the country, enough to get a sense of how Russians like to view themselves, this films themes felt very familiar. The depiction of the female radio operator, was so cliche, and well almost laughable. The band of scouts seemed to scream hey look we're PC, we even have a central Asian guy. The group also largely reminded me of the gang from Saving Private Ryan. There was even the weedyl little guy who is too afraid to shoot. All this said, its not a BAD film, its quite enjoyable, and its always interesting to see a WW2 film that is not from the Allied side. Alas though it falls short of greatness, well short due its insistence on dragging out all the old WW2 films tricks. You have seen this all before, the film offers nothing new. The thing that always irked me about Private Ryan, was the overtly sanctimonious/God Bless America style ending. The Star has an equally patriotic finale, but somehow the Russian patriotism is less galling. Overall a solid film, good even, but its been done.

elian I hope this movie will be properly distributed. I would like to see it AGAIN in a proper cinema and subtitled (not dubbed ! that would be a shame).The actors are all extremely natural and have realistic and interesting personalities.The lady is not bad either !