Movie Review: BURIAL

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN

Posted: September 2nd, 2022 / 05:42 PM

BURIAL movie poster | ©2022 IFC Midnight

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Charlotte Vega, Tom Felton, Harriet Ward, Barry Ward, Dan Renton Skinner, Bill Milner, Niall Murphy, Kristo Viiding, Tambet Tuisk, Ester Kuntu, David Alexander
Writer: Ben Parker
Director: Ben Parker
Distributor: IFC Midnight
Release Date: September 2, 2022

BURIAL is a solid, focused WWII thriller. Despite its distribution by IFC Midnight, BURIAL is not a horror film – at least, no more than any other war movie – but that shouldn’t deter viewers in search of an engrossing experience.

BURIAL is set primarily at the end of WWII in 1945. However, it opens in London, England, on Christmas Day, 1991. Anna Marshall (Harriet Walter), nee Brana Vasilyeva, watches the TV news as it’s announced that the Soviet Union has dissolved and Mikhail Gorbachev is stepping down.

Anna gets an unexpected visitor, and we see she’s formidable, despite her agw. Young Brana (Charlotte Vega) is more formidable still. We meet her in the extended flashback that forms the bulk of the film.

Young Brana is an officer in the Soviet Army. While the war against the Nazis is officially over, Brana’s unit has been tasked with secretly transporting a coffin containing significant remains from Berlin to Moscow. The contents are so important that the coffin must be buried every time the unit stops for the night.

There are German special forces, who call themselves “werewolves,” in the woods. The werewolves mark their weapons with runes, and wear animal hides on their heads. They want the coffin.

The more we learn about the thinking on both sides behind this mission, the timelier it feels in terms of present-day parallels. Writer/director Ben Parker conveys the terror of death that can come from nowhere, with stealthy assassins and long-distance snipers.

At the same time, we’re sympathetic to the physical slog of getting the coffin through the trees. We also feel for the desperation of Brana and her compatriots. They’re not especially loyal to Stalin, and don’t have a sense of Russian superiority. On the other hand, they’ve seen the concentration camps, and most of them feel the need to prevent the resurgence of the Third Reich.

BURIAL is very atmospheric, with a dark fairytale forest and old isolated buildings. We’re meant to be in rural Poland; the actual locations are in Estonia. There’s nothing to jar our sense of the period or the stakes.

There are no big twists with the characters. They simply deepen as we get to know them better. Vega gives a strong performance, showing us a woman who is feels understandable fear and outrage, but whose sense of commitment always prevails. Walter is excellent as the older Anna. Other noteworthy cast members include Tom Felton as a Polish civilian and Barry Ward as one of Brana’s peers is handy with a hammer (among other things).

BURIAL has some larger notions about propaganda that are worth thinking about. However, its virtue is mostly in its immediacy. We become caught up in the moment-by-moment struggle for survival, and find genuine suspense in the question of how it will all work out.

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A solid, focused WWII thriller

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Article: Movie Review: BURIAL

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