Little Kingdom

This is a gloriously shabby slice-of-life war-time drama where everybody double-deals, betrays, abandons, kills, or flees. Nobody is innocent. Loyalties seem to shift with the tide (it takes place in 1945 just before the Soviets take Berlin) and you have to pay close attention to the dialog to sift out the collaborators, sycophants, and secret agents from the members of the resistance. Aside from political tensions, there are the usual paltry village jealousies and alliances and nobody really wins in the end. Everybody is painfully human. I found Little Kingdom to be a gripping little story-telling masterpiece. The cinematography and sets are magnificently and Slavicly (if that's a word) dilapidated. It could be a microcosm of a dozen Baltic or Slavic villages during World War ll--no need to get specific!