A fat middle-aged man in German officer's uniform gets off a train somewhere in Russia in winter. He is a doctor who has just been called up we learn eventually. This is the end of the line- the Germans are about to retreat. He goes to a hospital which is being evacuated and is thrown out. Kicked out he wanders with another conscript- a failed actor turned postman. The postman is deafened by a shell explosion. They meet their Russian equivalents, others as bad at killing as they are, while other Russians and Germans kill one another around them. Finally, after walking in a circle, they find a hut that they had passed before burning down, with a girl dying of diphtheria in it. The doctor sits and holds her hand while she dies and dies- or falls asleep- himself. The postman wanders away to die alone.
You wouldn't watch this film for the plot, but then, we're not supposed to. It's about both the insignificance and the importance of human actions. Long shots watch people indifferently and then leave them behind. We see an enormous number of people struggling in the snow without any purpose except to stay alive and kill each other, so these Beckettian characters become more important just because they aren't intent on killing.
You wouldn't watch this film for the plot, but then, we're not supposed to. It's about both the insignificance and the importance of human actions. Long shots watch people indifferently and then leave them behind. We see an enormous number of people struggling in the snow without any purpose except to stay alive and kill each other, so these Beckettian characters become more important just because they aren't intent on killing.
