The film gets off to a rousing start. An elderly woman, along in her London apartment, suddenly is confronted by a home invader who, by the looks of it, is a neo-Nazi type who has a special reason for choosing this victim.
But the lil ol lady has something for him- a Taser. Before you can turn around, she has him in handcuffs, bound the radiator while she sits calmly at the foot of the bed. It is late 1991, and the lady who goes by the fake name of Anna, has just watched news of the fall of the Soviet Union on TV.
The cuffed and now drugged intruder (David Alexander) hasn’t chosen Anna at random; he suspects that she is a Russian called Brana who was a gun-toting Soviet intelligence officer. Not only that, he thinks she knows where Hitler’s body was buried some 36 years earlier.
So as the old lady starts to tell the skinhead a story, we flash back to 1945 – among the city’s ruins, a young female officer, Brana, meets with Red Army Captain Vadim Ilyasov (Dan Skinner). She is tasked with a covert mission to transport a mysterious crate back to Russia under the direct orders of Stalin. Her orders are to bury the crate in the earth every night to prevent its discovery, and never open it, under any circumstances.
That’s the set-up for what becomes a kind of a dangerous road movie. The trip is fraught with peril. Why? Well, for one thing, a band of German guerilla fighters who are known as “werewolves” hide in the trees and take shots at the band of Russians, refusing to acknowledge Germany’s defeat and the end of the war.
The trip is slow and, frankly, the movie lags a bit during the second act. The characters’ routine, however dangerous, becomes our routine, too.
But just wait for the gunfights- good Lord there are so many gunfights that the whole rhythm feels like an old Western, for better or worse. I tend to enjoy well-choreographed gunfights, if they don’t go on too long, and the film went right up to my limit. When the “good guys” (Russians, who knew?) are trapped inside a house on fire with the mysterious “box” and a band of enemies outside shooting in, the tension is palpable.
What I really liked is just what a kick-ass officer and crack shot Brana is. Played in her war days by (Charlotte Vega), she gives as good as she gets and she is absolutely a good leader and fearless participant. It’s a cool character played by a really good actress.
No spoiling the specifics, but, of course, we know we will eventually have to come back to the elderly lady and the would-be intruder who is at her mercy. And when we do, and when we get to the end, it feels more like a soft landing than something revelatory. Even when we find out whose in the box and why Stalin wants possession.
Lavishly shot and produced and with an able cast, the fictionalized history has its moments, but it’s a mixed bag for me 2 ½ out 4 stars.
Burial is now in theaters and available on demand
