The Beast

A war film set in Afghanistan. A Soviet tank unit destroys a village. The wells are sealed, the houses are driven over, and nobody is left. Then the unit loses its way. One tank is left alone in a valley and enters a place not on the map. Daskal commands it. Hard, paranoid, believing himself under siege, and looking at his own men as enemies. Koverchenko is the driver. He clashes with the commander for protecting the Afghan interpreter who speaks no Russian. There is an execution. Daskal kills the interpreter by driving over him and the crew stays silent. Koverchenko objects. As punishment he is tied to a rock and left in the desert. Villagers find him. The survivors of the destroyed village are in pursuit and a woman is with them. From there the film becomes the story of a man changing sides. Koverchenko tells them how to stop the tank. What the narrative is interested in is not war but a closed space: the inside of the tank is the real setting; hot, cramped, loud, and the outside visible only through a periscope. The tank works as a character. The narrative looks at it as an animal, and that is where the title comes from. The languages are divided. The Soviet soldiers speak English, the Afghans their own language with subtitles; the choice deliberately places the audience on one side. The source is a stage play. It was shot in Israel, in the Negev desert. George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer and Stephen Baldwin are in the cast. Kevin Reynolds directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes war films set in confined spaces. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a balanced view; the Afghan side is not sufficiently written and the narrative gives all its weight to the men inside the tank.