Byelorussia, 1942: exhausted villagers accompany partisan fighters on a trek through the deep snow in retreat from Nazi invaders. It is a frozen hell in which each figure seems cast into his own separate universe-and such is the goal of the special German forces assigned to divide and conquer the partisan resistance. In this setting, Larissa Shepitko develops an extraordinary psychological drama centering around three men: a Russian collaborator, a partisan who attempts to capitulate, and another who makes his own death a profound moral defeat for the Germans. "In the entire history of cinema, a handful of films have captured the transcendent, revelatory moment of spiritual triumph in the face of an impossibly painful reality....Shepitko's orchestration of silence, sound and music, her work with actors, and the near perfection of her editing have conspired to offer a profoundly moving experience." (Douglas Edwards, Filmex '78)