Favourite Russian Film: They Fought For Their Motherland

Sergei Bondarchuck is a director most associated with his butt-numbing, insomnia-curing beast that is 'War and Peace'. But to give the third fingered salute to the masses, I count the cream of his celluloid crop not to be the money-guzzling Tolstoy extravaganza but the underseen and underated world war two film: 'They Fought For Their Motherland'.

With it's star speckled cast, intelligent and witty script, powerful blood-curdling scenes and a show-stopping oscar-worthy peformance from Vasiliy Shukshin...this is one of the rare Bondarchuk film that I can actually watch without forcement by gunpoint.