Firstly, the film itself is very good -- in terms of its technical aspects. It's shot well (including the dreaded, but sparingly used 'shaky cam' sequences); it's pieced together nicely and has a good, almost too good (*read on) narrative flow for a documentary film that is shot in the midst of a war; and it also sports a musical score that's well apropos to the subject matter--in its haunting, dirge-like refrain.
The film follows a Serbian sniper serving for the break-away Donestk separatist group (a.k.a. Russian proxies), against the Ukrainian government forces (a.k.a., U.S. proxies), charting his travails over the course of an undefined time period (three years is alluded to, but the film footage does not seem to span anywhere near that long), during the recent hostilities in the pertaining region. It takes a snap shot of the man's life and ruminations in his role as marksman, while on and off the battlefield -- culminating in a somewhat ambiguous conclusion (as to his retirement... or not).
However, it should be noted that the film is very likely a Parvda-esque propaganda piece, wholly promoting the separatist side of the ledger in this conflict. I make mention of this because (i) it's rather obvious in the film itself, and (ii) because this fact seems to have resulted in the film receiving unduly low IMDb user ratings -- which, on merit and politics aside, the film does not deserve.
The key points of contention, and which rather give the game away, relate to the obvious bias of the central figure of the film -- regarding his political leanings, his interpretation of the war he's depicted as being embroiled in (as well as the Bosnian War of the mid-90's, that he alludes to incentivising his involvement here), and the overly mawkish way in which the guy is presented (...as well as one, suspiciously set-piece-looking situation he finds himself in).
As an example of the initial point, the man squarely blames the U.S. (lit. capitalism) for the Bosnian War -- seemingly oblivious to the fact that the Serbs butchered thousands of Albanian Moslems during their campaign of ethnic cleansing; as well as in-ironically trumpeting the great social equality of Communist Yugoslavia. (NB: I'm of Hungarian ancestry, with parents who helm from an erstwhile part of Hungary now in Serbian territory -- and I've been well apprised of how 'great' communism was, let me assure you... Hungarians were the first to rise against it, and three years in the Russian gulag for the egregious 'crime' of owning a farm, for my grandfather, is testament to the Soviet brand of 'egalitarianism'!)
In the case of the latter, a few of the scenes felt contrived -- in particular: the sniper apparently getting shot, but the body cam(?) he was wearing up until that point (and again thereafter) seemingly, inexplicably and irreconcilably M.I.A. at the time of said incident; and the subsequent medal award ceremony also felt ad hoc and just tad too neat a bow to be tied around a documentary film -- i.e., it felt scripted and smacked of a Russian film school graduate pandering to U.S. viewer 'neat and tidy ending' sentiments.
Though, it should be noted that the film, as broached, is well-made and, as such, may well have its intended effect on some of the more suggestible and less world weary Russian state television reared alumni. Of course, the opposite could be said for jingoistic, pro Western viewers, who will (and do) just rate the film down for not aligning with the particular narrative that they've been inculcated with... And around the confirmation / association bias carousel goes -- where it stops, only Hell knows.
Having said all that, I myself did not expect to see an objective account of the conflict in question; given the caveat proffered by the contentious user reviews associated with this film. As such, the sometimes blatant propaganda did not taint my assessment of this piece on its merits as an example of good film-making. I do recommend it -- it's engaging and a different perspective than what we're used to over in the West. But only with the proviso that those who do watch it, do not do so with the explicit intention to be politically enlightened, as to the pertaining situation; much less, the Age old capitalism vs. communism debate. The former quandary being far too raw a wound to be properly assessed with an objective eye yet; with the latter requiring much more of a 'War and Peace' approach to even attempt to decipher, not just Parthian snipes from a distance. 7/10
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