Voyna (2002)

Voyna: Directed by Aleksey Balabanov. With Aleksey Chadov, Ian Kelly, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Sergey Bodrov. During the bloody war in Chechnya, a British couple and two Russian soldiers are taken hostage by Chechen rebels. Two of the hostages are then released to bring the money for the British woman who is forced to wait for the ransom.

“Iu0026#39;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 donu0026#39;t think that Muslim fighters were u0026quot;bad guysu0026quot; 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 u0026quot;the right sideu0026quot; 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 u0026quot;aaahhh, thats greatu0026quot;, 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 u0026quot;bad guyu0026quot; is revealed: john goes back and becomes famous and he doesnu0026#39;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)”