Burial

A tense though somewhat dubitable drama about Russian soldiers on a mission to return Hitler's body at the end of World War II.

In “Burial,” the new historical action/drama starring Charlotte Vega and Tom Felton, the premise is an intriguing one… though the more you think about it, the less sense it makes.

Brana Vasilyeva (Charlotte Vega) is a young Jewish-Russian intelligence officer assigned to a secret mission that comes straight from Stalin: sneak Adolf Hitler’s body out of Berlin during the last days of World War II and bring it to Moscow.

They can’t use the easy methods like flying it out, because it’s super hush-hush and no one is to know other than Brana and a handful of others. So they wind up taking a truck through the deep forests of Germany and Poland, even following orders to bury the coffin every night and dig it up the next morning so it won’t fall into enemy hands should they be killed.

Meanwhile, they’re stalked by “Werewolves” — scattered remnants of German forces and Polish resistance who use their outdoor skills to take vengeance on the Russian invaders or punish any locals who helped them. Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from the “Harry Potter” series) turns up as Lukasz, a Pole who proves helpful… or could just be one of the werewolves himself.

It’s a tense, fast-paced movie written and directed by Ben Parker (“Girl on the Third Floor”) that increasingly turns to action movie tropes as it goes on. The last third or so is one long battle with sudden, very gruesome moments, almost crossing into horror film territory with its focus on gore.

Barry Ward plays “Tor” — so nicknamed after the Norse thunder god when he killed Germans with a hammer. An older, cagey Russian soldier, Tor proves to be the reliable hardcase who always has Brana’s back. He also absorbs astonishing amounts of physical punishment that would lay low a lesser man.

As a woman, Brana has to repeatedly fight for respect from the other Russians, especially the piggish captain, Vadim (Dan Renton Skinner). It’s the familiar meme of an extremely dutiful, competent woman having to stand up to idiots, layabouts and abusers.

Kristjan Üksküla is the obsessed German officer hunting them to retrieve the body so as to continue the myth that Hitler still lives. Harriet Walter plays Brana as an older woman retelling her tale to a young skinhead who has broken into her house, which acts as a framing device for the main story.

“Burial” moves along at a good clip and is never dull. Vega is an empathetic, compelling presence, though she’s not given much chance to explore some tragic elements alluded to in her backstory. Felton is given even less of a character to flesh out, existing as sort of connective tissue for the narrative rather than a three-dimensional figure.

As time goes on and things get more and more bloody, I started to question why Stalin would be so insistent upon taking possession of Hitler’s body, and keep it a secret. It would seem to benefit him to have his enemy’s death made plain to the world, much as Mussolini’s infamously was.

The notion grows dubitable the more you think about it, and the movie doesn’t really bother to explain itself.

The idea is not totally wild: the Soviets are known to possess teeth and skull fragments of Hitler, which were authenticated by scientists a few years ago. So clearly something like the endeavor depicted took place to bring his remains to Moscow.

I would like to have seen a little more attempted historical veracity rather than just be force-fed disbelief.

“Burial” will be available for rental on most streaming platforms Sept. 2.