War

Ivan, a Russian soldier held captive in Chechnya, is released. John, an Englishman from the same camp, still has his fiancee there, and the ransom demanded is more than he can raise. The two men go back to get her out on their own. Aleksei Balabanov wrote and directed. Aleksei Chadov plays Ivan, English actor Ian Kelly plays John. Sergei Bodrov Jr plays the Russian captain, one of his last roles before he died in the glacier disaster of 2002. The film was widely seen in Russia and argued over just as widely. It drew hard criticism for portraying Chechens as flat and hostile; defenders said it stayed faithful to a soldier's view rather than to the war. The telling is deliberately cold. No heroic score, no victory scene, no explanation. The question that keeps returning in Balabanov's work is here too: how long does a person's morality hold inside violence. Who it is for: viewers who can take a hard account of war outside propaganda language. Who it is not for: anyone seeking a balanced political frame; the film takes a side and does not open it to debate.