AllMovie

Set in the summer of 1941, this commendable wartime drama looks at a group of young, green recruits who are inadvertently cut off from their regiment and follows their exploits as they turn into mature soldiers. At first the group is much taken with their macho weapons but when they encounter the enemy deep in the Lithuanian forest they are caught off-guard. Once they escape that unfortunate scrape they run into another instance of humiliation, and then they start to grit their teeth and shape up. After they are cut off from their base they learn how to steal weapons, fight a guerrilla war, and hijack vehicles when they are needed. Their numbers diminish on an irregular basis but they also try to recruit others as they go along, in one realistic skirmish after another.