本片是苏联为纪念二战中苏联人民反法西斯斗争伟大胜利所拍摄的一部史诗性多集宽银幕巨片。全片分为《侵略》、《台风战役》两部，每部上下集共四集。1941年6月，法西斯德国集中了一百九十个师的兵力，以闪电战术入侵苏联，苏联因准备不足，在战争初期节节败退，德军直趋莫斯科城下，双方在莫斯科展开了殊死决战。该片拍摄历时两年，耗资约六百万卢布，拍摄场面宏大壮观，约有五千士兵、近一万名群众、二百五十名演员、二百零二名摄影师参加。这部场面宏伟的战争和导演其他几部类似的战争片一样，都在前苏联政府的支持下，拍摄的具有很强政治性目的的电影。影片宣扬的正义战胜侵略今天看来也是正当的，可是一些宣传国家领袖的场景明显是一种政治需要。如果排除掉这些政治因素，但就影片对宏观战争场面的描写，依然是出色的。

　　Young lovers, Max and lime dream to live life together, but there comes a war, and everything that seemed inviolable — their feelings and plans falling apart like a house of cards. Max together with his parents and other Jewish families the Germans were taken to the death camp. He manages to survive and return after the war to his hometown, where he was waiting for a bitter disappointment — all this time the father of limes secretly actively helped the Nazis.

　　The winter of 1917, the North-East front, the final clashes of the Great War. An Italian stronghold situated at 1800 metres above sea level, on the Asiago plateau, described in the novels of Mario Rigoni Stern. It’s snowing everywhere; the Austrian trenches are so close that you can hear the enemy soldiers breathing.
　　A hundred years since the outbreak of World War I, maestro Ermanno Olmi describes with Torneranno i prati his vision of a conflict that cost the lives of 16 million human beings, just as it was brought back to him by the memory of his father, called to arms at 19 years of age, to find himself within the bloodbath of Carso and Piave. A drama that scarred his youth and the rest of his life, just like millions of others.