Voyna

I've just watched the movie and i liked it a lot. 1st thing i liked about it is that it gives an info about war in Chechnya, stuff i never knew much about, so that was the reason why i started to watch it. but, as the movie went on more and more good things about it started appearing. its pretty realistic, so different for regular USA action BSing (great explosions make great movie...LOL). i don't think that Muslim fighters were "bad guys" in this movie, at least they r not shown that way. yes, their prisoners work as slaves, they kill prisoners, starve them and stuff...but its shown just as a things that do happen in war. and, lets face it, they do. also, enemies (chechens) r not some people that we know nothing about, aslan in his conversation with Ivan clearly states why is he fighting and which side is "the right side" in that conflict. basically, all sides involved have their good and bad sides. fighting scenes r made just the way i like it: keeping it real, no cheap explosions to make stupid viewers say "aaahhh, thats great", no exaggeration of any kind. scenes of countryside r beautiful. the best part of the movie, IMO, is the ending. i could say that thats the point where only "bad guy" is revealed: john goes back and becomes famous and he doesn't give a f... about whats going on with his comrades back in Russia, he just lets those poor Russians and chechens rot, he himself not having any worry in the world. he just showed everything what he filmed without asking himself what would that cause to Ivan in Russia. Ivan, on the other side, showed himself to be man of principles, honest, brave, fair and firm. really nice movie, realistic, not idolizing anyone, not praising anyone, just showing the war as it is (nothing more and nothing less)

"War" - a military action movie by Aleksey Balabanov. A Russian soldier who miraculously escaped from Chechen captivity decides to help an Englishman release his wife from captivity and returns to Chechnya in the midst of a bloody war. Together they will have to go all the way through the continuous fire of the madness of war. The best role of Aleksey Chadov in the movie.

the really tricky thing and a very good question is why aleksei balabanov don't shoot movies in hollywood?i think that would be great thing both for this director and for hollywood.vojna is film of that kind that was filmed in america in the golden days of hollywood-late 60 till the end of 70 maybe early 80.but the thing is that film come from russia-does russians knows better what is a good action-war movie than anyone in america?YES i say, and i also say to give that man everything he needs to just keep shooting movies.by my humble opinion that was the best movie shown during fest-main belgrade film festival, recently ended.

I liked the film a lot. Sure enough, as an action film, it is more realistic than the Rambo movies, but it is not its biggest merit. I'd recommend watching the film only for the sake of getting to know the Russian perspective on things - Westerners, Chechen "freedom-fighters", the Russian army, Moscow, the Russian "outback", etc).

I did not see any problem with Ian Kelly's acting, he looked quite convincing to me - after all he was playing the role of a British actor.

My favourite quote from the film:

John: This is an offence against our human rights!

Chechen (in Russian): What does he want?

Russian translator (in Russian): He wants to drink.

Chechen (in Russian): Tell him to shut up or he'll get the gun-stock.

Russian translator: John, shut up.

I think this movie is great. A few things upset it a bit, but overall it's very true to the realty of the situation in Chechnya and Russia, which is ultimately what matters to me. I especially like the style with which the movie was shot. It is as if it is made of little pieces each with it's own tagline. It's not philosophical in most aspects; it just shows the reality and well... that's it. If the viewer wants to think about something he/she can, if not just take it as it comes.

Plus at least it's honest with the viewer that in ANY war conflict civilians do die, unlike `Black hawk down'.