Winter in Wartime is more honest and equitable than most exaggerated testimonies of era's in hard times. [Full review in Spanish]

| Oct 6, 2022

Beautifully photographed... However, the film doesn't do anything we haven't seen before.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 20, 2020

The film is mesmerizing.

| Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 27, 2020

Winter in Wartime proves there's still much to learn about the war -- and ourselves.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 8, 2019

Winter in Wartime is a sad, surprising film.

| Aug 25, 2017

...there's a lack of momentum here that prevents the viewer from connecting to the material on a frustratingly continuous basis...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 10, 2014

A child-witness-to-war movie gets lost in a convention-driven screenplay

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 1, 2013

Shot beautifully and it evokes its setting well, but sometimes the movie relies a little too much on plot trickery and not enough on the emotional state of its main character.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 9, 2011

Spielbergian touches...a good enough mainstream drama, but one can't help but feel it's a missed opportunity to give Terlouw a more textured treatment.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 29, 2011

... strong and natural performances ...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2011

Sometimes familiarity is a good thing, and Koolhoven combines two familiar kinds of stories - the resistance drama and the coming-of-age drama - in a compelling way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 11, 2011

...a naive story that has some of the dreamy qualities of a remembered myth

| Original Score: 86/100 | Jun 1, 2011

The acting is superb, with Lakemeier the anchor surrounded by a talented ensemble. The soundtrack is effective in ratcheting up the suspense. Other strengths are the cinematography, sound and production design.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2011

Director Martin Koolhoven, adapting Jan Terlouw's 1972 novel, maintains the constant tension of a world where every stray word or glance could lead to tragedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2011

This is an often emotionally harrowing depiction of a young idealist running smack into the brutal reality of occupied life.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 27, 2011

Visually unremarkable, and worse than that when Koolhoven tries too hard: During a dramatic execution scene, the film shifts to slow-motion and the soundtrack becomes awash in angelic, choral harmonies; the effect is kitschy and bathetic.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 20, 2011

Winter in Wartime doesn't reinvent the World War II drama, but it doesn't have to; it works solidly within the genre with affecting if predictable results.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 13, 2011

Young Lakemeier, who plays Michiel, makes his feature film debut and rises to the challenge of scenes that would test the older, more experienced performers who surround him.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 13, 2011

This is a wonderfully realized human adventure, the tragedy and heartache inherent in warfare coupled with inner bursts of heroism magnetically brought to life first frame to last.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 29, 2011

Writer-director Martin Koolhoven hits just the right balance of domesticity and oppression here, setting up the film's tense second half with sweet early touches of naivete.

| Original Score: B | Apr 29, 2011