A powerful, evocative film
This isn ot only a film done well, it is also an important contribution to the cinematic literature of that time. The cocept at the heart of the film is that victorious Russian soldiers, mostly poor and unschooled rabble, burn with anger at the atrocities that German soldiers had commited against innocent Russian women and children during brief time they had the upper hand.
If rape is a crime of hate and exercise of power, it is also, as seen here, an act of revenge. How innocent were the German "innocent victims?" This film offers ample evidence that the survivors knew enough of what had been done in their name and in the name of Lebensraum (living space, farms, industries and home, stolen in other lands for German prosperity).
No one in the film is innocent. No one pretends to be innocent. All are guilty victims.
If you care about what happened then. If you care about peace now, you must see this film.