Not quite a superhero, but a survivor who emerges from hell with morals and ideals intact. Although he has a family and even a girl - a serious-minded nurse (Greta Trusina) who tends to his wounds on more than one occasion - he seems less an individual with problems to solve than a symbol of Latvia’s backbone. When he bayonets a young soldier to death, staring him in the eyes in horror, it seems totally unreal.Īnd in a way Arturs himself, though fetchingly portrayed in his various phases of lost innocence by Brantevics, remains an unreal character. It is a space in which no direction exists, as Arturs discovers in his first frightening mission stalking Germans through a foggy wood of dead tree stumps. The imagery is epic and dreamlike at the same time, the battleground covered in mist, grain stubble, snow.

In contrast to the emphasis on trench warfare typical of World War I, Dreibergs and his DP Valdis Celmins scour the countryside, taking the small platoon over many different terrains, one more terrible than the next. He grows up on the battlefield, fighting at the side of his single-minded father and his brother, and their three lives are constantly in jeopardy. The thrill of training with fake guns and grenades is soon followed by a real crawl through the mud while shells burst around them. Though he’s underage and his dad (Martins Vilsons), a former marksman, is overage for the army, they are both conscripted into one of Latvia’s first national battalions. This grim beginning is just the first trial of Arturs’ innocence. The Russian imperial army has ordered all the farmers to shoot their livestock, burn their homes and clear out before the Germans advance.

When some angry German soldiers turn up and senselessly shoot her, he is given no screen time to mourn. Beyond that is the gripping drama of mophead Arturs, who is introduced being caressed like a child by his mother on the family farm.

Unapologetically a war movie, its primary appeal will be to genre fans, though its historical ironies open up another avenue. Dreibergs, known up to now for his sports documentaries, directs with a great deal of male force and gusto.

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