Apparently based on real people, this story of Germans in a Russian POW camp still makes the altruistic, tolerant attitudes of the main protagonists seem less than convincing. The characters of the people involved in the camp are developed through dialogue and minimal action, without any visible storyline. The Russian political officer is Jewish, and so is his wife. She is now a Russian army officer trying to forget the torture she suffered in a Nazi concentration camp. Remarkably, both husband and wife would rather forgive than take out any nascent hatred on the German POWs. The camp commander is a tough disciplinarian yet he is not unreasonable or cold-hearted. Among the Germans, there is a young soldier whose ethics are intact and who is disheartened by what he knows of the war. Taken together, the characters seem to argue for the humanity that underlies the inhuman conditions war imposes.
by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
