Prisoner Of The Mountains

Based on Tolstoy's novella Prisoner of the Caucasus, this Russian film has a bit of an identity crisis: The tone vacillates between hesitant, quasi sentimental comedy and something darker, eventually settling uncomfortably into conventional buddy-picture mode. A Russian patrol is ambushed by Chechen rebels, and two soldiers -- green recruit Vania and older officer Sacha -- are taken hostage by Abdoul-Mourat, a Chechen villager who wants to trade them for his son, who's being held by the Russian military. A mute friend keeps close watch over the prisoners who, like all movie protagonists chained to each other, at first don't get along. Sacha eventually softe...