Why Are Russian War Movies So Awful?

The 2013 war movie Stalingrad, directed by Fedor Bondarchuk, is gritty, exciting, romantic and chock full of cutting-edge special effects.

It’s also deeply, deeply immoral, a work of pro-war propaganda that marks an inflection point in Russian cinema.

Russian filmmakers—and before them, Soviet filmmakers—are part of a long tradition of innovative anti-war cinema.

That tradition is dying, if not already dead. It’s burning up in the same fire of angry nationalism that propels Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, as I explain in my new video essay.

Don’t watch the 2013 Russian war movie Stalingrad. But if you do, watch it to understand what’s been happening to Russian society—in particular, Russian men—to make them crave war.

Even war they’re not likely to win.