Long I was suspecting that from the two cities who suffered in WWII (Stalingrad and Leningrad) the latter has a far more tragic story to tell....allthough cinema in both east and west glorifies the war against Nazi Germany especially because Stalingrad is the bloodiest battle till now....the effects were more time enduring in Leningrad -St Petersburg now and we must consider ourselves lucky that the great museum of Hermitage was saved for the upcomming generations....nowhere ekse in post Soviet Union was the results of WWII more visible than here...Russia bore the bulk of Germany's war machine and that's why they are just 146 mil.instead of 300 + they should have been by now every single home had casualties mainly people of reproductive age....it took decades for Russia to return in a normal way of life ..even more than their foes..women especially not only lost their mental health which could drive them to the goal of creating families but also drove them to leave the places of suffering and immigrate to all corners of Europe (for the delight of local men) in order to forget the hell they faced .....allthough I have photographs of Stukas flying over Hermitage by the river I suspect maybe Goering was somewhat planning a future plundering it and it remained intact.... I don't know if the youing director tried to make a statement but the Sasha character resembles a funny wisel phase Putin at a young age .....finally the only other actress I remember to be that tall is Lilly Cole from the movie " The Imaginariun of Dr. Parnassus"
