The action movie follows a group of Russian soldiers who escape from German captivity in a half-destroyed T-34 tank.

‘T-34’ glamorizes the militaristic, backward-looking nationalism that Vladimir Putin counts on to mobilize ‘real’ Russians against their ‘fascist’ enemies.

The fact that the movie itself is named for the tank says something about the way Russia views the war, and its Soviet past. So does "T'34"'s popularity.