Night Witches
2017 · 4m · Francia
Directed by Arina Korczynski
Genres: drama, historical, war
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
Yulia, a 'Night Witch' aviator, and one of her friends live through the regiment's moments of glory and a series of tragic events, as Yulia's fascination with aviation becomes fatally linked with the horrors of war.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's competent Soviet war history, sure, but there's nothing here that makes me lean forward—the tragic-aviator premise is well-trodden, and the film knows it, which means it's playing it safe when it should be breaking something.
Korczynski understands the formal weight of this material: the pacing between moments of grace and devastation recalls the Soviet montage tradition, and the restraint in not over-explaining Yulia's inner life gives the piece a considered, almost elegiac pressure that demands the viewer's full attention.
The decision to hold on Yulia's face in those final seconds—that micro-shift from wonder to recognition of what's being asked of her—is the entire film, and it's executed with such precision that a four-minute runtime feels earned rather than truncated.