COME AND SEE – the widely acclaimed film from Soviet director Elem Klimov – is a stunning, senses-shattering plunge into the dehumanizing horrors of war. As Nazi forces encroach on his small village in present-day Belarus, teenage Flyora (Aleksei Kravchenko, in one of the screen’s most searing depictions of anguish since Renée Falconetti’s Joan of Arc) eagerly joins the Soviet resistance. Rather than the adventure and glory he envisioned, what he finds is a waking nightmare of unimaginable carnage and cruelty—rendered with a feverish, otherworldly intensity by Klimov’s subjective camerawork and expressionistic sound design. Nearly suppressed by Soviet censors who took eight years to approve its script, COME AND SEE is perhaps the most visceral, impossible-to-forget antiwar film ever made. Originally released as “Idi i Smorti,” COME AND SEE was the winner of the Grand Prix at the 1985 Moscow Film Festival.

“As effectively anti-war as movies can be, ‘Come and See’ is a harrowing odyssey through the worst that humanity is capable of, directed with bravura intensity by Elem Klimov.” (Rotten Tomaotes)

“I have rarely seen a film more ruthless in its depiction of human evil.” (Roger Ebert)

“‘Come and See’ is a paradox: a visceral freefall into barbarism, but also a controlled, sometimes contemplative descent.” (Los Angeles Times)

“A disorienting and undifferentiated amalgam of almost lyrical poeticism and expressionist nightmare.” (Time Out)

Tuesday, September 1
Doors 9:00 pm | Movie 9:30 pm *Time subject to change.
Advance tickets $15 HERE | $15 at the door

*Minors permitted in the balcony! (18 A) Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service and main floor seating.
**Rio Theatre Groupons and passes OK. Please redeem at the door.

COME AND SEE (Elem Klimov, 1985 / 142 mins / 18A / Russian with English subs) The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family’s wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.