Gefangen

A Russian military convoy is ambushed in Chechnya and the Russian commanding officer isn't going to send a relief column to help them . Two Russian soldiers take a Chechen prisoner of war and trek through hostile territory to reach the convoy

This film gives the sensation that you have to be clued up on the recent conflicts in Chechnya . The post Soviet Russian military is a pale shadow of the legendary Red Army that battled its way from Moscow to Berlin and conquered Manchuria during the second world war . Morale is non existent and the military culture of " the rule of the grandfathers " means what was one of the greatest fighting forces of human history in the 1940s is now a painfully inefficient military . One can understand the corrupt and apathetic military commander not sending a relief column even though westerners might find this baffling but so many other things are unexplained . How does a couple of Russian soldiers taking a prisoner to the convoy save the situation ? The film doesn't descend in to Hollywood cliché and if this was an American film set in say Afghanistan the body count and action sequences would have been upped greatly and instead of this we have a rather brooding and introspective movie . That said it also feels pointless as well as confusing which explains why this not been too much feedback on CAPTIVE on this website

Far far better than any Hollywood crap movie which would have spoken of the Chechnya conflict, with clichés galore for dumbs, depicting ugly Russians and good Chechnya folks...This authentic Russian film is moving, compelling and poignant, offering a deep character study and a painful ending. I won't forget this great little unfortunately underrated film. Such a shame it has not been released in France.