PLENNYY

A Chechen village under Russian occupation. Alongside the numerous Chechen prisoners, there are occasional glimpses of fraternisation. One young peasant woman is cooking solyanka for a Russian soldier, her sister is making love to another one in the wash-house outside. The commander, anxious about a convoy that has broken down in a mountain pass, orders two young soldiers, Vovka and Rubakhin, to establish contact with the missing unit, and tells them to take along a Chechen prisoner familiar with the lay of the land. The film follows their laborious trek through jagged mountains. When the trio is crossing a river, Diamil, the young POW, makes a break for freedom. His attempt fails, but all the same the relationship between the two soldiers and their prisoner gradually becomes less hostile.

Based on Vladimir Makanin’s story “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, the film carries forward the more differentiated and conciliatory perspective on the Chechen conflict recently displayed by Nikita Mikhalkov’s 12 (2007) and Alexander Sokurov’s ALEXANDRA (2007).