Prisoner of the Mountains

Traditional confusion - ennemies/friends, free choice/destiny, 'innocent killers' and proud mothers of serving sons until they are trapped... "The armed invasion is the way the things are, but some crazy fanatics can't accept it" seems to be one message of the film.

If you want to understand Caucasus and do not believe Western media it is a must. Compassionate toward both sides of the clash.

I don't think I see here as much as others do, with the anti-war sentiment. I know it's THERE, I just don't think it goes far enough. But European cinema will always dominate contemporary Hollywood on movies like this. Could be that it's based around a war that few people outside Russia even know existed (War in Chechnya, 12/94-08/96), just doesn't have the same pop as, say, Vietnam. The interplay between the four, I would argue, "main" characters (Sacha, Vanya, Dina, and Hasan) makes the flick.

This had some humour and some nice shots of nature. There were some wonky parts that tried to be funny but ended up being lame (ghost parts). But there's definitely a decent message in here. Some of it just felt a little off. Still definitely worth a watch.