Winter in Wartime (“Oorlogswinter” is its original Dutch title) is a immensely successful 2008 war film directed by Martin Koolhoven, based on the novel of the same name by Jan Terlouw.

The film stars Martijn Lakemeier as Michiel van Beusekom, a young boy that attempts to aide an English pilot evade capture by the Germans during World War II after his plane crashes in the nearby forest of a secluded village. The film is a story of trust and loyalty told through the eyes of a young boy. There’s a lot more that I could say about the film, however I don’t want to risk spoiling anything as a lot of the things that I’d need to discuss would be considered spoilers. So I will simply leave it with the bit i’ve said and implore you to check the film out for yourself.

It’s often tough to sell a foreign film to those that aren’t keen on subtitles, however, if you fall into that category, i’d certainly recommend you attempt to overcome your distaste for reading subtitles and give this film a go. The acting is amazingly touching and the technical accomplishments for a low-budget film are quiet astounding.

Sony Picture Classics delivers another amazing 1080p, MPEG-4 AVC, transfer (2.35:1). Everything from the colors to the textures are very pleasing to the eyes, and almost always appear completely perfect.

The film’s color pallet contains a lot of blues (to enhance the feeling of winter); as a result a lot of the times the skin tones have an overt blue glow to them. This is nothing to do with the transfer, it is a stylistic decision of the filmmaker, and as such it’s very beautiful and befitting of the film. The dark elements throughout the film were rendered amazing in the transfer, the blacks are deep and inky, as you’d expect from a Sony Pictures Classic release, and the deep blue and grey textured clothing found throughout the film have amazing clarity. This film is certainly on par with most of Sony’s new releases.

The audio track in the film is a brilliant Dutch language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The dialogue throughout the film is very crisp and clear, though I doubt many of us will understand what they’re saying.

The bass has a bit of a rumble at various times throughout the film, but this isn’t Saving Private Ryan, so don’t expect your speakers to rattle the neighbors windows. That being said, I wasn’t disappointed with the bass that the audio track put forth. It felt very fitting and true to the vibe of the film.

I cannot believe that all they could manage to scrounge up for this release were these small scraps of material. I suppose I should be happy with what is present, as there is at least something present on this release, however I find it difficult to pay so much money for a new release when they can’t even bother to take advantage of the capacity that blu-ray has to offer. Take a look at the special features below:

• The Making of Winter in Wartime
• Winter in Wartime Theatrical Trailer
• Previews of additional Sony titles
• DVD Copy
• BD-Live

I’ll start this off the same way I start off a lot of the reviews I do for films that end up with a score of under 4. This films wasn’t bad, the transfer wasn’t bad, nor was the audio track bad. It generally comes down to special features.

If you’re not a fan of them, then the final score probably wont matter to you as much, because after a quick recalculation you’ll discover that it receives a perfect 5/5 if looked at from a purely technical standpoint.

With all that being said, this release is probably the best this film will ever see. Unfortunately foreign films, especially ones not in English, get very little fan-fare in the US and therefore rarely, if ever, get subsequent polishing and releases.

If you’re a fan of foreign films, or war films, I’d certainly recommend this release. If you’re still unsure I’d recommend you wait a bit for a price drop, but I wouldn’t completely pass over this release.