In the Fog - Do not watch when depressed

Jesus Christ has anyone ever made a film before this that stares for so long and so deeply into the abyss humanity's dark side?  In the Fog is an unrelenting trudge through the muddied plains of Eastern Europe, marching without emotion towards the conclusion that at its heart human civilisation is nothing but a brief respite from our selfish and warlike nature.  But that doesn't necessarily make the film a bad one, as we shall see.

In the Fog is set at a non-specific point during the Second World War on the Eastern Front.  Given that the action is set somewhere in Belarus and the power of the German occupiers seems all-encompassing, we can probably assume mid-1942.  The film opens with an execution by hanging that happens out of shot.  A group of local men are hanged for some unknown crime and the onlooking crowd are warned of the perils of messing with their German overlords.  Cut to two men traipsing through a forest.  It soon becomes clear that these men are Soviet resistance fighters on their way to find a man from the village named Sushenya.  As the dialogue progresses we come to learn that Sushenya was not hanged with the others, rather he was released and the resistance fighters want to know why.  If the Germans didn't hang him then he must be a collaborator - mustn't he?  If he's a collaborator then he should be shot - shouldn't he?

There are plenty of films that use time and space to allow depth to form in their story.  In The Fog does this and then some.  Here we follow our resistance fighters walking through a forest, crossing a stream, and then partaking in a perfunctory conversation with Sushenya's wife about onions - even though they all know why they've come for Sushenya.  It all serves to emphasise the normality of these people and tedium of their lives, juxtaposed against the world-encompassing events sweeping up everyone around them.  The reality of being a Soviet resistance fighter is hardly heroic, rather it's a boring job much like any other.  As the truth about what really happened is slowly revealed in flashback, Sushenya becomes a sympathetic representation of human civilisation as a whole, trying to do its best to the right thing while people around him take advantage of the opportunities the chaos of the war has presented them.

After about 90 minutes Sushenya makes a speech to no one in particular about how he can't understand how the people in his village have become savages so quickly.  He wonders how everyone who knew and trusted him implicitly just 12 months ago is now hunting him as a traitor.  Is it because they can't comprehend that he wouldn't sell out to the Germans to save his own hide?  Is the reason they can't comprehend it because they know they would also defect under the same circumstances?  If so then why are they so quick to condemn him and hunt him down?  After all, it might be one of them who next has to choose between death and collaboration.  He wonders where all the good in the village has gone, and how quickly the veneer of civilisation is washed away.  This is the heart of the film, it's an thought-provoking message that the film-makers clearly wanted to deliver to the world.

As the film's final scene plays out, there is a brief moment where you think things might be left hanging on an ambiguous thread that dangles the slim possibility of future hope.  But a single sound tears that away in an instant.  Overall In the Fog is an exceptional film to watch.  It stares long and hard into the depths of human souls and finds frightening things there.  Good though it is, it's a film that you shouldn't watch if you're in anything less than an entirely coherent emotional state - because it's depressing as hell.