Set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany, the film's screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Zwick was based on Nechama Tec's 1993 book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, an account of the eponymous group led by Polish Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during World War II.

[2] In August 1941, several weeks after Nazi Germany launched its invasion into USSR, Einsatzgruppen sweep behind the relentlessly advancing German forces across the occupied parts of western Soviet Union, systematically exterminating the Jewish population.

After a winter of sickness, starvation, growing discontent and attempted mutiny, the camp learns that the Germans are about to attack them in force at Easter.

Just as all seems lost, the Germans are assaulted from the rear by Zus and his force, who have deserted the Soviet partisans to rejoin the Jewish group.

The film's closing intertitles inform the viewer that the Bielski partisans lived in the forest for another two years and grew to a total of 1,200 Jews, building a hospital, a nursery and a school.

Asael joined the Red Army and was killed in action six months later; Zus, Tuvia and Aron survived the war and emigrated to the United States to form a small trucking business in New York City.

The epilogue also states that the Bielski brothers never sought recognition for what they did and that the descendants of the people they saved now number tens of thousands.

[4] Production began in early September 2007 so that Craig could complete filming Defiance in time for reprising his role as James Bond in Quantum of Solace.

[5][6] Co-producer Pieter Jan Brugge felt the shooting locations, between 150 and 200 kilometres from the actual sites, lent authenticity to the film; some local extras were descendants of the Jewish families rescued by the Bielski partisans.

The website's consensus reads: "Professionally made but artistically uninspired, Ed Zwick's story of Jews surviving WWII in the Belarus forest lacks the emotional punch of the actual history.

He said Zwick "wields his camera with a heavy hand, punctuating nearly every scene with emphatic nods, smiles or grimaces as the occasion requires.

"[11] The New Yorker critic David Denby praised the film, saying: "it makes instant emotional demands, and those who respond to it, as I did, are likely to go all the way and even come out of it feeling slightly stunned."

Denby also praised the cast's performances, which he described as "a kind of realistic fairy tale set in a forest newly enchanted by the sanctified work of staying alive.

On January 22, 2009, the film received a nomination for an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score for its soundtrack by James Newton Howard.