DVD365.net

Affliate advertisement

News Article for Friday 6th July 2007

From one of the most internationally acclaimed and influential Russian filmmakers of all time, Sergei Bondarchuk (director of the Academy Award winning War And Peace), come two powerful World War II action-dramas based on novels by Nobel Prize winning author, Mikhail Sholokhov - Destiny Of A Man and They Fought For Their Motherland which are released on DVD by Nouveaux Pictures on 27th August 2007 priced at £19.99 each.

Sergei Bondarchuk's debut feature, which he not only directed but also stars in, Destiny Of A Man tells the moving account of an ordinary Soviet citizen, Andrei Sokolov, during the desperate fight to protect the motherland from Nazi invasion during World War II. In the course of the struggle, Sokolov is captured by the German invaders and dispatched to a concentration camp, where the inmates are mercilessly worked and ill-treated. The one thing that urges him to cling on to life is the thought of being reunited with his family when the war is over.

Beautifully crafted and performed, the film is essentially a morality tale of basic humanity overcoming the adversity of evil. Nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, They Fought For Their Motherland is set in July 1942, as the exhausted Soviet troops begins its retreat toward Stalingrad while desperately attempting to hold their ground against the rampaging German war machine.

The film concentrates on the remnants of one shattered Soviet regiment and its individual soldiers' thoughts and fears in the face of impending annihilation, not only of themselves but of Mother Russia too. The film's powerful depictions of war and destruction effectively bring home the inhumanity and waste wrought by evil endeavours and provide a moving insight into the personal predicaments of the individual characters forced to participate in a frantic fight for survival.

Destiny Of A Man (cert. PG) and They Fought For Their Motherland (cert. 15) will both be released on DVD by Nouveaux Pictures on 27th August 2007 priced at £19.99 each.