Checkpoint

A group of Russian soldiers is sent to a checkpoint set up in mountainous country. The days pass in patrols, waiting and boredom. Shots come out of the forest and there is no telling who fired them. Nobody knows whether the villagers are friendly or hostile. An ordinary day can end in death at any moment. Aleksandr Rogozhkin's Russian film never names the war and argues nobody's case. The soldiers are not heroes; they are frightened, bored young men who do not fully know what they are doing. The other side is never given a face either. The telling builds no action, drawing its tension from not knowing. The tone is dry and the humour bitter.