This is by far the funniest Swiss movie to hit the screens since decades, maybe with the sad exception of Thomas Koerfer's "Green Henry" - where all the puns were unintentional. The plot of "Beresina" is so original that no word should be lost about it in front of anyone who intends seeing the movie. The acting is superb throughout, with newcomer Elena Panova carrying the whole film on her shoulders with amazing ease. Still, this doesn't mean "Beresina" is a perfect satire. Schmid is not a comedy director by nature, and sometimes the film suffers from the maker's conviction that any kind of overstatement or repetition is funny in its own right. Furthermore, the strong focus on national themes will hardly allow the film to travel very far. However, what finally matters here is that Swiss cinema has been in need of a vital injection for a very long time, and that this movie is doubtlessly it.
