Powerful ‘Prisoner’ Captures Corrosive Atmosphere of War

One hundred and fifty years ago, Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story set in the Caucasus at a time when his country was locked in a miserable war with intractable rebels. How little some things change.

Simple, powerful, convincing, “Prisoner of the Mountains” is the Tolstoy plot updated to the recent conflict with Chechnya, but its story needs no specific time or place to be effective. A spare, poetic tale of the traps of conflict and fate, of how much and how little humanity counts for in a state of war, it could be told about any location where killing is casual and options for survival few.

Directed by veteran Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (who had a hand in the script and cast his son Sergei Bodrov Jr. as one of the leads), “Prisoner” won the International Critics Prize at Cannes and is Russia’s entry for best foreign language film in the 1996 Academy Awards.

Despite its official status, Bodrov’s work is remarkable for not taking sides in the conflict. The film’s measured, unsentimental sympathies are rather for those whose lives are fractured by war’s pointless savageries, no matter what their political allegiance.

Bodrov Jr. plays a young crew-cut recruit named Vania, first glimpsed being inducted assembly-line style into the Russian army. Boyishly eager to serve, he asks where he’s headed. “Wherever your country sends you,” is the gruff reply.

That turns out to be the Caucasus mountains, where the large but lackadaisical Russian force engages in massive drinking and random weapon firing, all of which arouses the contempt of the devoutly Muslim local people who have bitterness, feuds and long memories of their own to contend with.

Out on patrol in the hinterlands, Vania gets shot in an ambush, and only he and Sacha, another badly wounded soldier, survive the attack. Chained together, they’re taken to a remote mountain village where they find themselves the personal prisoners of an unbending local patriarch named Abdoul-Mourat (Jemal Sikharulidze).

Played by the quicksilver Oleg Menshikov, who was Nikita Mikhalkov’s nemesis in “Burnt by the Sun,” the mustachioed Sacha is not the kind of person you want to be shackled to. A cocky, selfish veteran who loves nothing but his AK-47, Sacha is at home in the cynical ambience of combat. Contemptuous of his chain-mate’s reluctance to kill the enemy, he insists, “You have to, Vania. It’s war.”

Not surprisingly, Sacha and Vania do not remain at each other’s throats but form a wary camaraderie. Also to be expected is the relationship of sorts that forms with their guards, especially Abdoul’s young and suspicious daughter Dina (Susanna Mekhralieva). But these familiar elements are handled with clarity and integrity and don’t play out in completely expected ways.

The core of “Prisoner of the Mountains” is why these men have been taken captive in the first place. Abdoul’s own son has been imprisoned by the Russians and he hopes, with a parent’s defiant logic, that he will be able to exchange his first-born for these two foreign invaders.

But in the corrosive atmosphere of war, with not a thimbleful of trust on either side, what ought to be a simple trade becomes anything but. The villagers want the soldiers killed out of hand, the Russians don’t believe the hostages even exist and the intractability of the situation narrows the possibilities for those who believe that there is value in even a single human breath. But, because they do believe, they can’t help but persevere.

Beautifully shot by Pavel Lebeshev, cinematographer on a number of Mikhalkov films, “Prisoner” is strengthened by its scenes showing village customs and traditions that have endured for generations. And the acting, both by veteran Menshikov and newcomer Bodrov, stresses the characters’ individuality.

But “Prisoner of the Mountains” is successful mostly because of its determination to trust the pared-down ruthlessness of the situation. By doing so, the filmmakers underline one of the truisms of Eastern European cinema: The best of films often come from the worst of times.

* MPAA rating: R, for some violence and language. Times guidelines: wartime violence.

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‘Prisoner of the Mountains’

Oleg Menshikov: Sacha

Sergei Bodrov Jr.: Vania

Jemal Sikharulidze: Abdoul-Mourat

Susanna Mekhralieva: Dina

Alexi Jharkov: The Captain

Valentina Fedotova: The Mother

A Caravan Co. and BG production with the Russian State Film Commission, released by Orion Classics. Director Sergei Bodrov. Producers Bori Giller, Sergei Bodrov. Screenplay Arif Aliev, Sergei Bodrov, Boris Giller. Cinematographer Pavel Lebeshev. Editors Oleg Grinshpun, Vera Kruglova, Alan Baril. Music Leonid Desyatnikov. Art director Valery Kostrin. Sound Ekaterina Popova Evans. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.

* Limited release.