Theo Robertson
A Russian military convoy is ambushed in Chechnya and the Russian commanding officer isn't going to send a relief column to help them . Two Russian soldiers take a Chechen prisoner of war and trek through hostile territory to reach the convoy This film gives the sensation that you have to be clued up on the recent conflicts in Chechnya . The post Soviet Russian military is a pale shadow of the legendary Red Army that battled its way from Moscow to Berlin and conquered Manchuria during the second world war . Morale is non existent and the military culture of " the rule of the grandfathers " means what was one of the greatest fighting forces of human history in the 1940s is now a painfully inefficient military . One can understand the corrupt and apathetic military commander not sending a relief column even though westerners might find this baffling but so many other things are unexplained . How does a couple of Russian soldiers taking a prisoner to the convoy save the situation ? The film doesn't descend in to Hollywood cliché and if this was an American film set in say Afghanistan the body count and action sequences would have been upped greatly and instead of this we have a rather brooding and introspective movie . That said it also feels pointless as well as confusing which explains why this not been too much feedback on CAPTIVE on this website
Robert J. Maxwell
It's the Chechen civil war against Russia -- one of them, anyway. There have been many over the centuries. Two Russian soldiers take a young Chechen fighter captive. One of the soldiers, Krikunov, decides not to pile his trophy captive in the truck with all the others but to take him on a two-day march to their base, across the rugged terrain of the North Caucasian mountains. A second, more practical, soldier, Logacheve, reluctantly accompanies his friend on the journey So two men and one hostile teen aged boy wind up schlepping through wind, rain, streams, forests, and glades for two days and one night.The story isn't unique. There have been other films about soldiers taking prisoner and becoming humanized by getting to know their enemy. Just off hand, Cornel Wilde's "The Naked Prey" and Martin Ritt's "Five Branded Women." Usually the prisoner is a girl, so we get a bit more oomph out of the story. But this kid will do. He has long hair and his features look feminine and his delicate form looks weak.It couldn't possibly have cost a lot of money to make. There are no CGIs, no battalions of extras, no set battles, and few special effects. We see three guys trudging through the mud and arguing. The sentiment is kept low key. Krikunov shows little affection for the boy, only going so far as to untie his hands and help him put on a pair of clean socks. Krikunov's somewhat dull companion makes occasional sarcastic remarks about may Krukunov should adopt the kid. But the growing feeling of protectiveness is there, although it's expressed in a cipher we must decode ourselves.I'd be curious to see how an American audience would respond to a film about war between the Russians and the Chechens. I doubt it would make many people very happy. They'd have an avoidance/avoidance conflict. Many Americans appear to hate the Russians, never having forgotten or forgiven the Cold War. (Some are still getting over Germany for World War II.) Yet the Chechens can hardly be the heroes. There is a large population of Moslems in Chechen and we're not too fond of Moslems. Further, a few Chechen militants were involved in the seizure of a Russian school in Beslan in 2004, in which 384 hostages died, including 186 children. What to do, what to do? Who to hate, who to hate?
