The North Star (1943) + Commentary

It's June, 1941 in a farming cooperative in the Soviet Socialist Republic of the Ukraine. Although the citizens of the cooperative hear about the atrocities of the war on their radios, they are on the most part not yet directly affected by it. It's the end of the school year, and some of the older youth are excited about their futures. Beyond that, a small group of those youth are looking most forward to their imminent vacation to Kiev, where they are planning to hike for the four or five days it takes to get there above their planned three days in the city itself. They include: Damian Terasa Simonov, who finished top of his class including getting a scholarship to study at the State University of Kiev in the fall; his girlfriend, Marina Pavlov, the two who will be separated for the year as she finishes her schooling and who plan eventually to reunite in Kiev not only for Marina to go to university as well but for the two to get married; Kolya Simonov, Damian's older, more worldly brother who is a junior officer in the Soviet air corps; Clavdia Kurin, an old fashioned type of girl on who Kolya is sweet; and Grisha Kurin, Clavdia's younger brother. Things change when the Germans invade the Soviet Union - including the village of the cooperative - first with air strikes then ground troops.

– Commentary by film and arts critic Adrian Martin