Parents' Guide to Ashes in the Snow

Beautiful scenery and powerful actors bring Sepetys' book to life, with much of the plot (including its brutal violence) intact in this painful, emotional adaptation. Many of Ashes in the Snow's story beats will seem familiar to viewers who've watched a Holocaust drama (and certainly those who've read the source novel): Lina's early life seems like a dream of contentment, with comfort, a loving family, a fancy car, flirtatious boys. But after the soldiers' nighttime visit, there's no more sunshine, no more ease. There are only beets and dirt and cold and sudden bullets, a family ripped apart, a bleak future.

Powley's huge eyes communicate Lina's bottomless pain, and Kongsli is terrific as her steadfast, principled mother. Martin Wallström is also effective as the tortured Kretzsky, a half-Ukrainian soldier who knows he's being pushed into doing the terrible things he must do to rise in Stalin's army -- but does them anyway. Nothing comes easy for these characters, and that makes the film not very easy to watch. But as a document of WWII horrors that are far less well-known than the Holocaust, Ashes in the Snow is an invaluable document that illuminates a terrible period in world history.