#Prisoners of the Mountains - a review by Alan Farrell

 
Prisoner of the Mountains. Russian, 1996. Directed by Sergei Bodrov (evidently written by him, too, if “schrepskaia vlentomdreviko zchtevnitsk Bodrovla” mean “written by him, too”). Starring: Yeah, right. Name two Rooshan movie stars. Ready, go. Actually, I think you can guess maybe from the cast who’s the Rooshan and who the Afghan(stani), but… Oleg Menshikov; Sergei Bodrov (the son, we assume, if “zeztayevskovit” mean “junior”); Valentina Fedotova; Alexsei Zharkov; Susanna Mekhraliyeva; Alexandr Bureyev; Jemal Sikharulidze (Wanna guess which side he’s on?).

Allegedly taken from the short story by Tolstoy (not Leo Tolstoy, the novelist, but Bob Tolstoy, the plumber, who wrote “Prisoner of Seattle” and the sequel “Prisoner of Dee-Moines,” both available in paper now) titled “Prisoner of the Caucasus,” but “taken” far if you will, substantially altered to accommodate a respectably-understated message about irony, humanity, fate, stoicism, dignity, grief, vodka, donkeys. Though this is serious stuff, be it added that the occasional yuck does obtrude: two soldiers, after all. While we’re on it, it might make some think of Thomas Mann’s Innere Verwirrung und fruhes Leid and no, I haven’t got a clue how to translate that into English except it’d be A Child’s Confusion and First Grief …or something: Young girl (an adolescent here on the sill of nubility… and how many of us have dreamt of a tippy-toe across that sill over the years?) discovers passion and pain in the same instant …or something.

Halfway through this lyrical but tragic little film, nominated for Oscar ™ by the bye, just as your ear has grown numb from the alternance of Rooshan and either bad Rooshan or Afghan(stani), the sound track of a sudden bursts—through the intervention on an inoperative transistor of tinkerer-prisoner Vanya (Dobrov le jeune) Gillin—into Louis Armstrong’s (Luys Ahmchtrwnkkaya’s) “Go down, Moses! Go down to Egypt land. Tell ol’ Pharaoh to let my people go…” Question, I suppose: Who are the people to be “let go”? The Afghan(stani)s, crushed under Rooshan occupation and prisoners in their own land? The two Rooshan dumbos, uneasy buddies, captured in a vehicle ambush and held in durance in the Afghan(stani) village? The village elder’s son, himself prisoner of the Rooshans in town, against whom the old man hopes to trade his two captives? Who’s exactly prisoner of whom in this sad clash of cultures and passions? The inexplicable translation of political imperative into human action… translator, traitor.

Shot on location sommeres that surely looks authentic, if “prizbodaya vermitzvivk eftomadonti” mean “shot on location”: the whitewashed aerie set onto lowering mountains of shale, denuded of any vegetation (or hope), vast, untrammeled arena in which nonetheless men seem to be small; plodding, patient yet intolerant denizens, all swaddled in 1950’s era sports jackets from Good Will ™ or frock coats from a 1970’s prom (should add here that in the Funny Hat Competition, during which the Rooshans put up a good contest with their soup tureen helmets and VoPo service caps, the Afghan(stani)s come off way best with their shearling shakos and puffy bunny-rabbit-fur busbies: you’d better be toting an AK if you’re wearing one of them things around a group of men on account of somebody’s gonna say something, you bet), mustachioed, grisonnants, leathered and weathered, grim and inscrutable, virtually no one young save little Dina (Susanna Mekhraliyeva, variously pronounced), from whom an adult’s sensibility and an adult’s day-labor are extracted; the odd donkey, to this viewer’s casual eye, no happier than the rest of them… possibly no smarter, certainly no better-smelling.

It goes like this. Sasha (Oleg Menshikov) and Ivan, the former a sergeant, wise and cynical and the chou-chou of the local Kommandant (Alexsei Zharkov), the latter a newbie, just off the plane from Zbtvskkkhktsch where his mom is a schoolteacher (and part-time tractor mechanic to judge by the heft of her) fetch up with a mission to patrol the outback in a BTR-60, a sort of PT Boat on wheels. Caught in an ambush, the young recruit Ivan doesn’t get off a shot, gets knocked cold somehow; the sergeant, more experienced, fires his AK till struck by fragments from an explosion. In the aftermath of the ambush, old Abdul Murat (Jemal Sikharulidze) claims the two half-dead Rooshans to ransom for his son, the local schoolteacher, jailed in town. We note, among other things, that while Abdul’s son has evidently opposed the foreign incursion, the son of another Afghan(stani) elder (Djurkjvsct, variously pronounced) has gone over, become a constable for the Rooshans. He will pay for his collaboration just as his coeval pays for his resistance.

Held in the village, the prisoners first make peace with one another, then with their captors, the silent Hassan (Alexandr Bureyev), whose tongue the Rooshans have cut out, and the burgeoning Dina, son of Abdul Murat, pretty and curious, of an age to appreciate a sensitive young man in the person of Vanya. The other village elders, though, want the Rooshans gone or dead. The Kommandant refuses to deal, either with Abdul or with Ivan’s mother, who shows up to intervene. With no hope of rescue or release and with the clock (which Vanya has repaired) ticking down, Sasha and his young buddy hammer open the ancient fetters they’re held in and make good an escape, a tragic escape, shattering the bitter-sweet equilibrium of race and circumstance and leading to the bitter, not sweet dénouement: I mean, we have two count ‘em two prisoners, yet the film is called Prisoner (singular) of the Mountains. A small human drama set among monstrous, sun-washed cliffs for amphitheater. Very-nearly perfect little movie. Who’da thought the Rooshans had it in them?

Comments

[kao_hsien_chih]

Sikharulidze is a Georgian (as in the country of, not the state) name. The film's wikipedia entry notes that his character speaks Georgian throughout the movie, rather than Chechen (apparently, it's based on the First Chechen War, not the Afghan War.)

Kinda impressive timing, given the year the film was made--wasn't the First Chechen War still ongoing in 1996?

[Charles I]

Sounds great, Memories of The Beast, reversed, in two languages with transnational love and a nod to the Russian Mothers thrown in.

I recall the BTR-60 sold as a fearsome NBC-fitted taxi that'd be ferrying hordes of Rooshans through the Fulda Gap beside the tank onslaught that followed the nuking of NATO - Au Revoir DDR, tanks for the forward battlespace - that Ronnie Reagan saved us from before he brought down the Wall.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention I find theses foreign films are generally more engrossing than your run of the mill say, Hurt Locker. Lebanon comes to mind. might just be the cultural difference.

I just watched the German file The Lives of Others, about a Stasi surveillance/suppression op against a DDR German playwright. It had some stereotypical portrayals - the rapist Deputy Secretary driving the op - but compellingly revealing at once.

[elkern]

For a chilling musical take (music music, not musical theater, luckily) on Chechnya (or wherever we'd rather not be), check out Richard Shindell's "You Stay Here".

[rjj]

Palestine (1 Kings 20) ... Chechnya .... Afghanistan .... whatever ....

"The gods of the valley are not the gods of the hills, and you shall understand it."

The grey men never do

Some Caucasus er, um ... backstory

Russian documentary on WW1 Savage Division http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KeZaKDfvlc in ultra-lo res.

other Russian movie likes:

At Home Among Strangers

A Driver for Vera (anything read about this is a spoiler - ANYTHING)

Seventeen Moments of Spring. After the first couple of sit-thrus of the whole 14 hours Muller becomes the protagonist. Leonid Bronevoy was an irresistible actor.

Bodrov's Mongol. It doesn't matter that it is too big, too beautiful, and Sun Honglei is too good for it to work as a whole. Looking forward to Mongol II.

all are at YT - most are unsegmented.

[Twit]

I've only had a chance to watch half (the sweet one, it seems) of the movie so far, but I spent a bit of time in this region, up along the Georgian-Chechen border, and thought I would throw in a few tidbits about the locale. I didn't meet any Russian soldiers when I was there, but I very much recognize the characters of Hassan and Abdul, as well as Dina (and the various old women always working, working, working, and watching from a distance). This part of the high Caucuses is an achingly beautiful place, and the cultures there are unique in many ways but one could say also typical of 'mountain people' everywhere. There are probably dozens of distinct cultural identity groupings in this region (not tribes per se, but getting close), some Georgian, and others Chechen, but they mostly all wear the tall hats and the long coats. They share a mutual hatred for Russia (although not necessarily Russian people), and the story goes that many of these villages even successfully resisted all Soviet-era attempts to collectivize, deport, and pacify them, including under Stalin and Beria.

Socially, they’re egalitarian, with no village ‘leader,’ and disputes are traditionally settled either via negotiation, sometimes moderated by respected elders, or through violence or the threat thereof. Blood feuds are to be avoided but can occur, and when settled the tradition in some places is to nail the severed hand of the unfortunate party to one’s front door. Among the Georgians at least, women are respected to the point of being worshipped, but also do most of the work and are prohibited from for example sitting at the same table as a man. I don’t know the status of women among the Chechen peoples there, but from the movie it seemed like it might be somewhat similar. Religion up there is an interesting mix of either Orthodox Christianity (Georgians) or Sufi Islam (Chechens) with worship of nature and the earth. Weapons are ubiquitous, and they are hospitable to a level that most ‘modern’ people would probably find disconcerting.

One interesting morsel, and one to which maybe Col Lang or others here can speak: Legend has it that one of the Georgian groups up in this area (the Khevsur people) are direct descendents of Crusaders who settled there on the way back from the holy land. This may be just a legend, although their traditional dress includes chainmail and boys are raised to be swordsmen.

[Twit]

For those interested, here is a little music video for the traditional song "shatilis asulo," which is nice representation of some of the traditions of the high Caucuses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bu9Z4rqH0A

FYI, the song is about the village of Shatili, which is on the Georgian side of the border (http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5232/)

[rjj]

Twit, THANK YOU.

Did you read LeCarre's Our Game?

[Twit]

rjj, No but I will now. Thanks!