THE RAINBOW

A Russian story of a Ukranian village within the German lines, of the silent warfare waged by the peasants against the enemy, of a solid front, broken only by the Russian slut who is mistress to the German captain, and by the headman who turns traitor to his neighbors, acting as front for the Germans. A story of cruelty and viciousness, with nothing particularly new, but sparsely told, fresh in backgroun and pointed with episodes that pace the story: -- the secret devotion of a mother to her son who lies dead, but -- so far -- inviolate; of the seizing of a woman guerilla who has crept home to bear her son, and of the torture and death; of the killing of a lad sent secretly to take her food of the selection of hostages in order to force the yielding of concealed grain, and the revealing of the identity of the family of the dead lad; the coming of the Red Army scouts -- then of the Red Army prisoners -- and finally the attack and the release of the village. A simple but holding story -- with authentic feel.