Sergei Loznitsa’s grim movie fulfills every preconception of a Russian war tale — slow-paced, teeming with dirt and lousy weather, full of moral quandaries endured alongside disgusting food and inadequate clothing. Death haunts “In the Fog” from the first impressive moments, where the camera forces you to share the viewpoint of Belarusian men being marched to a Nazi gallows.
The scene then shifts to partisans Burov (Vlad Abashin) and Voitik (Sergei Kolesov), who are determined to kill Sushenya (Vladimir Svirski) for betraying the executed men to the Nazis. But an ambush by German soldiers gains him a reprieve. The rest of the movie weaves together scenes of the three men as they try to find refuge, and flashbacks that show how they came to this.
The actors’ faces and bodies do all the work demonstrating that Burov is fatalistic and aloof, Voitik shifty and self-serving, Sushenya decent and almost spiritual. At times the sparse, repetitive dialogue leads to the thought that there is a fine line between slow burn and trudge.
If the movie has a star, it may be cinematographer Oleg Mutu, the Romanian who lensed “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” and “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.” Even when the pace wanes, the images are still gripping.