“Barnet's early sound masterpiece is set in a small Russian community during the First World War and recounts, among other things, the tragi-comic results of fraternization with the enemy. As Jay Leyda comments (in Kino), ‘it seems to tell itself without anyone pushing it and you can't be sure whether the next scene will be funny or pathetic, gentle or violent.' What is sure is the personal shading of Barnet's style, coupled with a sweepingly pictorial realization of the little town and its disparate inhabitants, allied to an inventive use of sound.” John Gillett, British Film Institute