Word: bodrov
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Chechnya, a peace treaty with Russia has been signed, but skirmishes continue--the bloodshed has not ended with political accord. In Sergei Bodrov's film, "Prisoner of the Mountains," politics as usual leads to a horrific, numbing climax as absent-minded doctors send adolescents to war and tanks roll down hilly roads too beautiful for bloodshed. Based on the Leo Tolstoy short story, "Caucasian Captive," "Prisoner of the Mountains" brings the people, not the politics, of war to the dramatic forefront, capturing the paralysis and pain felt by families caught in the middle...
...Russian soldiers, young Vania, played by Bodrov's son Sergei Jr., and experienced Sasha (Oleg Menshikov) are ambushed and taken prisoner by a Chechen father. They are to be used as negotiating tools to facilitate the freedom of his son, who is being held in a Russian prison, despite the town leaders' repeated warnings that the Russians will bring nothing but trouble to every...
Stunning cinematography makes up for a slow beginning. Filmed in the small country of Dagastan, Bodrov and his crew transformed a town that spoke 36 dialects and languages into a working set, using townspeople as extras in many of the scenes. Bodrov found a star in one of them, the twelve-year old Valentine Fedotova, who plays Vania's protector, the daughter of his captor. Silent at first, her incredible eyes convey innocence while her daily life conveys drudgery. With her mother dead, she is the woman of the house, the cook, the cleaner, the farmer and the care-taker...
...Bodrov is best known for his comedies, including "Trouble Maker," "The Beloved Woman of Mechanic Garvrilov" and "Very Important Person" and, despite their precarious predicament, laughter pervades the captives' existence. Sasha, who joined the army because he "was stupid, liked guns, and needed money," is an experienced and somewhat psychotic soldier who shoots rounds in open fields and yells a lot. He is a story-teller, a liar and a lush, and his influence on Vania leads to drunken dances, exercise routines to "Let My People Go" and a rather vocal victory for Vania in the town's fixed wrestling...
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