entertainment3 min(s) read
Letterboxd urges people to watch WW2 film with sickening '25 minutes from hell' at least one time before you die
Letterboxd users have encouraged viewers to watch a WW2 film that has a sickening "25 minutes from hell" scene - at least once.
Some films are unforgettable. Others are so harrowing you’ll never want to watch them again, but you absolutely should.
That’s the warning from fans of the 1985 Soviet anti-war epic Come and See, a World War II film that has become one of the highest-rated narrative features of all time on Letterboxd, overtaking cinematic giants like The Godfather and Parasite.
Based on real survivor testimonies
Directed by Elem Klimov and based on the 1971 novel Khatyn by Ales Adamovich, along with his later collection I Am from the Fiery Village, the film draws from real testimonies of those who lived through the Nazi occupation of Belarus.
Klimov, who experienced the war as a child, infused the story with his own memories, creating a film that’s as personal as it is terrifying.
The plot follows Flyora (played by Aleksei Kravchenko), a teenage boy who joins the Belarusian resistance and quickly finds himself in the middle of unimaginable horror.
Shot in chronological order, the film documents his descent from a wide-eyed teenager to a traumatized survivor whose face tells the story of war without saying a word.
Among the film’s most notorious moments is a 25-minute sequence that shows Flyora being captured by Nazi soldiers and forced to watch, with a gun to his head, as an entire village is burned alive inside a church.
Collider described the scene as “one of the most sickening depictions of wartime Hell ever shot”, while one user on X wrote that it was "25 minutes from hell".
Credit YouTube.
Social media reactions
Letterboxd users have said it is a movie you must see at least once, even if you never want to see it again.
As one viewer penned: “This film was so difficult to watch, but it needed to be made. I've never seen anything so brutal and devastating. And because of that, I'll probably never watch it again... but you really only need to see it once, it's unforgettable."
Another shared: "Come and See is an experience that I can't recommend as it is unbelievably disturbing. I will label this with perhaps an even worse term. Come and See is an important film."
They added: "It should be regarded and respected as one of the most important films about war ever made. It lays bare so much about human nature and about what horrors we are still capable of, that this is unmissable for anyone who doesn't mind having a mirror held up to you that stares with unrelenting pity and sadness."
To prepare for the role, Kravchenko fasted for days, jogged for hours, and lost weight to achieve a malnourished appearance.
Director Klimov even tried to hypnotize the young actor to help him endure the filming, but IMDb reports that he proved resistant to hypnosis, meaning he had to act through the emotional toll unaided.
Klimov's movie has been described as “a descent into hell”, a sentiment echoed by nearly every person who’s watched it.
The film remains an essential viewing, ranking among the greatest films of all time by Sight & Sound’s Directors’ Poll, and holding a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.