Sometimes I think you could show two hours of a ploar bear sleeping in a snowstorm and film critics would find some kind of interesting if not apocalyptic story in it. Such is the ability of cinema buffs to project their beliefs, sentiments, and subjective interpretations into film. For this and only this reason can one explain the many awards and nominations of the bleak, tedious, and uneventful "Prisoner of the Mountains". Adapted from a Tolstoy novel about the age old struggle between Russians and Moslems in Chechnya, this film follows the misadventures of two Russian soldiers who are captured and detained by agrarian, mountain dwelling locals. There a prisoner for prisoner swap goes sour. There's some brief violence and scurrying around which takes about 10% of the movie run time. The rest of the time is spent watching the two captive soldiers getting drunk, whittling, chatting with passers-by, and making friends with their captors, etc. Were is not for the fact that the film gives a rare look (for westerners) into the beauty of the mountains and people of Dagestan, this film would be difficult to recommend.
Review of Prisoner of the Mountains
