The Penal Battalion (2004)

Shtrafbat (original title)

Director: Nikolai Dostal

Writers: Eduard Volodarskiy

Cast 
Aleksey Serebryakov  ...  Penalty Battalion Cmdr. Vasilii Tverdokhlebov 
Yuri Stepanov  ...  Antip "Kulak" Glymov 
Aleksandr Bashirov  ...  Stirah 
Iliya Kovrizhnykh  ...  Tzukerman 
Aleksei Zharkov  ...  Lykov 
Roman Madyanov  ...  Kharchenko 
Dmitri Nazarov  ...  Otetz (padre) Mikhail 
Andrei Smolyakov  ...  Baukin

Genre: Action | Drama | War
Runtime: 546 min`s

Sound: Russian

Subtitles:  none

Region - 5 (Russia) PAL

 
Many experienced and excellent actors mixed together in an ongoing plot of an untold part of world war II on the eastern front. Characters well portrayed and unforgettable. One episode leaves you wishing for the next. Pay attention to the closing credits were the thousands of Shtrafbat battalions are listed. An untold story involving hundreds of thousands of individuals. Sometimes brutal, sometimes romantic, always filled with real people and dialog. Produced with excellent sets and camera work. Heroes and villains, criminals and priests, patriots and traitors. Portrait of people struggling to survive and overcome a most terrible time.