User Reviews

This is a film adaption of one of the best recent Russian novels, Nenastje, by Aleksey Ivanov. It details the adventures of a group of "Afghantsi," Russians who fought in Afghanistan, after the fall of the Soviet Union. It really gives a sense of the wild 90s in Russia. The Afghantsi try to create their own mini-republic, which flouts the local authorities, and looks for all the world like a latter-day Cossack host. Eventually, however, the group breaks up, its leader is killed, and corrupt businessmen take over. In one sense it is a heist movie, since the action revolves around one member of the group's later attempt to steal a bank shipment, and flee to India. It is the lone hero's desperate attempt to break out of his "nenastye" (swamp) through the bank heist that gives the work its name. The film has important things to say about the deep Russian need to belong to a collective, and the great sense of loss that the fall of the Soviet Union created, and still creates to this day. What is most moving, however, is the fact that the most timid and innocuous character in the movie ultimately revolts and saves the hero. A great story.