AllMovie

This uneven documentary is about the history of Russian Mennonites who had originally settled in the Ukraine but were forced to immigrate to the Americas after World War I and the 1917 communist revolution. Director and writer John Morrow uses interviews, historical footage, and re-enactments to tell the tale of the migration of this evangelical Protestant Christian sect, opposed to military service and therefore facing a serious dilemma during the two major wars on their native soil. Morrow provides some background on Mennonite history, noting that for more than one hundred years after they settled in Russia in 1786 to escape persecution elsewhere, they had experienced no great difficulties -- until the period of the two wars. This period is re-enacted to complete the historical background on the group. Interviews with Mennonites who recall the past sometimes wander off the main objective of the documentary, yet as a whole, the film offers 83 minutes of information on an otherwise little-known religious sect.