Prisoner of the Mountains (Russian: Кавказский пленник, Kavkazskiy plennik), also known as Prisoner of the Caucasus, is a 1996 Russian war drama film directed by Sergei Bodrov and written by Bodrov, Arif Aliyev and Boris Giller. The film is based on the Caucasian War-era short story "The Prisoner of the Caucasus" by the classic Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
Prisoner of the Mountains was awarded a Crystal Globe at the 1996 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and the same year was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Russia) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Russia). It also received rave critic reviews. The film is rated R for some violence and language.
Overview
This film illustrates the conflicting views between traditional Chechen culture and Russian warfare through the skillful use of soundtrack, costuming, and arms. The personal confrontation between two Russian soldiers and their Chechen captors is the main theme of the film, which was shot in the mountains of Dagestan (mostly in the aul of Ritcha, whose inhabitants are mentioned in the film's credits), a short distance away from the then-ongoing First Chechen War.
Cast
• Oleg Menshikov... Sasha
• Sergei Bodrov-Mladshii (Sergei Bodrov Jr.)... Ivan (Vanya) Zhilin
• Dzhemal Sikharulidze... Abdul-Murat
• Susanna Mekhralieva... Dina
• Aleksandr Bureev... Hasan
• Valentina Fedotova... Ivan's mother
• Aleksei Zharkov... Maslov
Plot
A group of Russian soldiers is ambushed by rebels in the Chechen mountains and two of them are taken prisoner by an old man who wants to swap them for his son in the Russian detention. The two prisoners cope with the situation in very different ways, as the war-hardened and cynical officer Sasha (Oleg Menshikov) works to escape while the young and naive conscript Vanya (Sergei Bodrov, Jr.) tries to make friends with his captors. After an escape plan fails, the different personalities of these prisoners determine their fate.
Reception
Awards
Awards:
Nominations:
Ratings
Prisoner of the Mountains received a very good score of 87% "fresh" (positive) reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (including 100% "fresh" by the top critics), with the average rating of 8.3/10.[1]
As of December 2008, it has also the user rating of 7.7/10 at Internet Movie Database.
Trivia
Dzhemal Sikharulidze, whose character - Abdul-Murat - abducts the two Russian soldiers, speaks Georgian in the film - not Chechen.
References
External links
