SACRIFICE and courage are put to the test this week when Dutch drama Winter In Wartime is released on DVD.
January 1945. Nazi occupied Holland lies under a blanket of snow. A young man, Michiel, defiant in his hatred for the Nazis, inadvertently receives a map detailing the hiding place of a crashed RAF pilot and sets off to prove his worth.
He finds the pilot, Jack (Jamie Campbell Bower), badly injured, but the situation becomes more desperate when a dead Nazi trooper is found and the hunt for the killer commences.
Unaware of the terrible consequences that await his family, Michiel decides to help Jack escape, undertaking a perilous journey that could cost him everything he has ever known.
Securing the Dutch entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and featuring on the Golden Globe Long List for Best Foreign Language Film; Winter In Wartime was also voted Best Movie of 2008 by the Dutch Press.
And for good reason.
Director Martin Koolhoven's cool and clean visual style boosts the expansive blankness of the snowy setting perfectly (which really pops to life in BluRay, where the high-definition picture and sound makes each snowflake and crunchy footstep feel chillingly real).
But it is the framing of the shots which really impresses.
Keeping the emphasis on the Michiel rather than the foreboding Nazi threat, the narrative is played out through the child's eyes - with an effective and dramatic execution scene handled particularly well.
Each well-planned frame is like a photograph with a sweeping score to back it up as the audience is taken through tender encounters and nail-biting chase sequences.
Although the film looks attractive, it is carried on the shoulders of young Martijn Lakemeier who never faulters throughout the emotionally demanding 120 minutes.
Backing him up are an eclectic cast of Dutch regulars and Britain's own Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeney Todd, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) as the stranded pilot.
Winter in Wartime is a breathtaking cinematic masterpiece that shows the true human cost of a terrible conflict.
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Winter In Wartime is out on DVD and BluRay now through Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment.