Voyna

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Voyna

DVD cover
Directed by Aleksei Balabanov
Produced by Sergei Selyanov
Written by Aleksei Balabanov
Starring Ian Kelly
Aleksei Chadov
Music by Vyacheslav Butusov
Cinematography Sergei Astakhov
Editing by Marina Lipartiya
Distributed by Intercinema Art Agency
Release date(s) Flag of Russia March 14, 2002
Running time 120 min.
Country Russia
Language Russian
Official website
IMDb profile

Voyna (Russian: Война, literally The War) is a 2002 Russian film by Aleksei Balabanov about the realities of the Second Chechen War starring Aleksei Chadov and Ian Kelly.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The film begins with the main character Ivan Yermakov (Alexei Chadov) being interviewed, and as he begins his story the films cuts into the year 2000 during the Second Chechen War, after the fall of Grozny a Chechen warlord Aslan Gugayev (Giorgi Gurgulia) runs a camp next to an aul in the highlands of Chechnya. Despite having secure income from his brigades in Moscow, Saint Peterburg and Samara as well as some legitimate business there, he takes joy in kidnapping. Both Ivan and his comrade Fedka were enslaved after they were taken prisoners in early 2000. They also had to share their accommodation with a commercial Jewish hostage Semyon from Vladikavkaz who was held for ransom.

However that particular day they were joined by two more, an English couple, theatrical actors John Boyle (Ian Kelly) and his fiance Margaret (Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė). They were kidnapped in Georgia during their tour there performing Shakespeare's Hamlet who John played. Ivan, having experience in computer programming knew a little English and not only was he an translator for John he was also trusted by Aslan to communicate in the Internet. The five shared shocking conditions of living in a cellar, and every once in a while the Chechens would show how far they would go to get their way like publicly beheading two Russian servicemen and nailing Semyon's fingers off.

After a while of living in this ordeal, Semyon is dragged away (presumably killed) and the four are relocated to an even more remote base where their quarters are now a pit which is already occupied by a crippled Russian Captain Medvedev (Sergei Bodrov) despite his condition of being unable to move his feet, the officer's mere presence is enough to raise everyone's spirit in particular Margaret's and Ivan's. John's negotiations with England to secure the 2 million pound sterling ransom goes nowhere and Aslan becomes fed up, and decides to secure his the money by releasing John, along with Ivan and Petka (since the two have no practical value for him), and keeps Margaret with an ultimatum of four weeks to get £2 million otherwise she will be raped and beheaded.

Both Ivan and Petya are discharged from the Army and Ivan visits Medvedev's family in Saint Petersburg before going returning to his home city of Tobolsk. John's "rescue" gains him prominence back home in London, but his attempts to secure any help from the British authorities fail, as none wish to pay ransom to terrorists. Realising that he has to sell everything off, he is approached by a Channel 4 representative who offers him £400,000 in return for a concise documentary footage of his travels. Accepting the offer John rushes to Moscow, however all Russian authorities refuse to undertake the exchange as, again, none negotiate with terrorists. Although John is offered to purchase a telephone number of an ex-KGB operative who lives in Vladikavkaz and specialises in ransom exchanges.

John next travels to Tobolsk to find Ivan there and hire him as his translator. Back home, Ivan finds that little has changed over his two year absence, his parents have separated, some of his friends were killed in local gang wars, and the prospects of building a career are as dim as ever, even more for a veteran like him. However what got him to follow John was the not the prospect of what was left of the £35 thousand John had with him, but out of his respect for the Captain and his family.

Stocking up at an army surplus store the pair head off to Vladikavkaz, but the promised ex-KGB operative turns out to be nothing but a common thief. Desperate, Ivan decides to go and find Aslan alone and do the exchange by himself. Luckily he bumps into a soldier who is about to leave for Chechnya. Both he and John are smuggled in a truck under a tarpaulin past the checkpoints in exchange for Ivan's privately purchased combat boots.

Once there the two first ambush and commandeer a Land Rover, stocked with arms and driven by Chechen terrorists. In the ensuring firefight Ivan kills all four terrorists, but inside the jeep a woman is also killed. The reality of this catches up with John and emotionally he nearly breaks down that war was not what he came to witness, Ivan in turn is pissed off because all the time he has helped him and in return John was not able to kill anyone in the ambush.

The next morning however John pulls himself together and the pair come across a lone Chechen shepherd Ruslan Shamayev (Evklid Kyurdzidis) on a bus stop. Ivan beats him up and falsely leads him to believe that his unit will kill all his family should he not regularly report in. In return Ruslan promises to lead them to Gugayev. The path requires the three to ditch the Jeep and walk across a glacier, and through ridges that were deserted since the 1944 deportation.

The initial hostility and distrust dies down, as Ruslan fully cooperates and when approaching Aslan's camp (which is located right next to the Georgian border) tells Ivan of the standing clanal blood feud between the Shamayevs and Guguayevs. He promises to help Ivan out of his goodwill in return for his aid in enrolling his son into Moscow's University. By the time they reach their destination Ivan trusts Ruslan with weapons.

The three then assault the camp, where despite Aslan's swear by Allah that neither Margaret nor the Captain will be hurt, John discovers Margaret naked and bruised with obvious rape signs. Enraged, he chases after Aslan and guns him down with a pistol. Aslan's death was never intended as Ivan hoped to use him in negotiating a safe passage and then paying him off with what money they had left in return.

Soon enough the Chechen fighters start assaulting the camp, and Captain Medvedev suggests that they escape via the river by building a raft. After travelling part of the distance that way, the five then carry the immobile captain to a Chechen Tower and hold off the siege before the called in (via Aslan's satellite phone) Mi-24 and Mi-8 flight of helicopter gunships relieve and rescue the group.

Back at the airbase Ivan gets all of the £35 thousand he was promised, hands some to Ruslan and his narrative picks up again, that John having shot the documentary became very famous. Whilst Ivan was brought to criminal responsibility for the murder of citizens of the Russian Federation, as he was already discharged from military. He never visited Russia since and gave his witness statement in England. However the proud Ruslan Shamayev came to Moscow and expressed how he was savagely beaten by Ivan who cynically killed Chechen women and children, he now lives in Moscow, and his son is a student at Moscow State University. Margaret, following the experience and her obvious love for the Captain never married John, the money that Ivan shared with the Captain he returned to her. So instead Ivan sent all he had left to the Captain's family which allowed to finance several expensive operations. Only the Captain supports Ivan's statement, and once again Ivan repeats his respect for the man.

At that everything fits in, as Ivan's interview was in a prison cell, he himself thinks he will not be sentenced, though anything can happen.

[edit] Impact of the film

The film had a catch phrase "This is not Brother 3, this is war", and like Balabanov's Brother and Brother 2 the film was immediate success upon release. It highlighted the dirty secrets of the Second Chechen War, like the corrupt Chechen militia, the total mess of the Russian Army, the fact that Russian authorities could not care less about their POWs, the immense Red tape in both Britain and Russia that John has to deal with. Yet just like the first two films, despite all this the message is clear the Russians are fighting for a noble cause and via the example of John (whose story was based on real westerners who were held hostage by Chechens) Balabanov drives that message to the rest of the world.

[edit] Cast

  • Aleksei Chadov as Ivan Yermakov
  • Ian Kelly as John
  • Sergei Bodrov Jr as Captain Medvedev
  • Ingeborga Dupkanaite as Margaret
  • Evklid Kyurdzidis as Ruslan
  • Giorgi Gurgulia as Aslan

[edit] Similar films

[edit] External links