A thorough review of The War with snippet reviews of Balabanov’s other films Brat, Brat 2 and Of Freaks and Men

By: Charlie Prince
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars
Director: Alexei Balabanov
Starring: Alexei Chadov, Ian Kelly
Country: Russia (aka Voyna)

Night Patrol (or, if you prefer Night Watch) may be the most talked-about Russian film of the moment, but the real star of young Russian cinema is director Alexei Balabanov, and his recent film The War expands on his already diverse track record. The War probes the current situation in Chechnya, and poses a radical change from his gangster films (Brat, Brat 2) and subversive dramas (Of Freaks and Men). Perhaps most importantly, the blatant patriotism evident in Brat 2 was toned down significantly in The War, an essential element for a film on such a touchy subject.

It’s been exciting watching the recent revival of Russian cinema. Tycoon: A New Russian and House of Fools strike me as some of the better examples of this wave, and certainly the recent blow-out success of Night Patrol shows the trend is going strong, but just under the radar of these films are several films by the incredibly talented Balabanov. The simplicity of gangster story Brat (Brother) – a story of a tough-as-nails young man who arrives in St. Petersburg fresh out of a stint in the army, who upon meeting up with his inept gangster brother discovers he can rise to the top of the gangster food chain in short order (everyone around him is comparably “soft”). That film left me dying to see the sequel. After taking down St. Petersburg, our star gets on a bus to go tackle the big boys of Moscow, which is taken up in Brat 2. Although the sequel didn’t live up to the power of the original, it was still quite good. Between these, Balabanov eeked out the remarkably original Of Freaks and Men, a none-too-shy look at the shady origins (including the mistreatment of women) that pervaded the early Russian film industry. Shot to look like a faded old “sepia tone” film, and starring many of the players who made Brat as much fun as it was, this was strangely enjoyable given its dark subject matter. That Balabanov’s playfulness is evident even in such unusual territory is very promising, and in my mind is comparable only to Lars Von Trier’s The Idiots.

While Of Freaks and Men showed that Balabanov was not limited to action/genre films, The War blew any such fears out of the water. The film centers around the kidnapping of a British couple (tourists) and a young Russian man who was captured while serving a mandatory stretch in the Russian military. They are kept hostage in some of the worst possible conditions (basically at the bottom of a pit in the ground with minimal food and maximum unpleasantness). Their Chechen captors hassle the British couple to raise ransom money through phone calls home, and when that fails they release the British man (played by Ian Kelly), while keeping the British woman hostage, as an incentive for finding ransom money. The Chechens also release the young Russian soldier after coming to the conclusion that nobody will pay ransom money on his behalf.

The bulk of the movie deals with Kelly’s desperate efforts to get back to his girlfriend in a territory at war, and without any ability to speak Russian he must recruit a guide willing to risk showing him the way back. Of course, who else other than his co-captor could do this? The Russian soldier, who is seemingly ambivalent about the war, agrees to take him back as much out of a loyalty to his former commander (who also remains captive) as for the money he is paid to lead the journey.

The stage is set, and the trek back to find the girlfriend is the heart of the film. Oddly, however, the two-dimensional British protagonist is not the actual star of the film. Kelly’s character is portrayed as a naïve and largely moronic foreigner goofball (his role is blatantly comic at times), and serves more to distinguish the Russian soldier/guide, played by Alexei Chadov. Chadov remains impressively composed throughout the risky adventure. In the end the film succeeds on the strength, and fun, of his character. With the clueless Kelly at his side as an obvious foil, Chadov comes across as one cool cat, and in that regard, this film bears a large similarity to Brat – these are essentially movies about making one tough guy look cool (and ruthless at times). In trying to find his way back to the camp, Chadov has no idea what he’s doing (hard to imagine anyone really having any idea what to do with the task given him), but he’s quick on his feet and tough. Viewers expecting a rigorous treatment of the political landscape in Russia will be disappointed. This is more a movie about Chadov’s character than about the situation in Chechnya.

[Spoiler ahead]

At the end of the film, Chadov and Kelly decide that they must storm the Chechen encampment by force on the logic that the Chechen leader cannot be trusted. They have essentially enslaved a local farmer en route and forced him to fight with them (in front of the farmer Chadov leaves a phantom voice mail, allegedly to his dastardly colleagues, instructing “them” to kill the farmer’s family if Chadov doesn’t return soon, thereby giving the farmer a reason to help keep Chadov alive). Together they storm the compound and at this point the film turns into nine parts Rambo for one part “reflection on the situation in Chechnya.” For action fans, it’s a great sequence.

Although at times a limited budget is obvious (in particular, after the fact interviews with Chadov that advance the plot whenever visual storytelling runs out of ammo come across as a bit of a cop-out), the cinematography, especially given the ambitious subject matter and diverse terrain, is accomplished. The primary concern going into the film, that the anti-foreigner sentiment of Brat, or the nationalistic undertones that come more to the front in Brat 2, proved to be unfounded, more because Balabanov was more interested in creating a character study than a statement on Chechnya. To be sure, the Chechens are not portrayed well in this film, but this is balanced out by a healthy level of cynicism aimed at the Russian military as well. Our star (and the film as a whole) seems primarily focused on personal interests and battles that have the Chechnya conflict as only a background.

And besides, in the end it turns into a Rambo movie, and the political nuance pretty much flies out the window. The film is consistent, however, in its portrayal of foreigners as, essentially morons. Kelly is inept to the point of playing comic relief, and the interactions he has upon returning to Britain to scrounge up the money do nothing to paint him as the exceptional foreigner. Similar portrayals of foreigners in Brat and Brat 2 were tempered by the revealed ignorance of the star. In one scene in each of the Brat films, the star essentially insults a European to his face in the guise of friendship and under the cover of language barriers, essentially calling his target a stupid American. When a friend points out that he’s actually addressing a European, the star shrugs and says something along the lines of “same thing.” Although this helps to take the edge off of the star’s categorically anti-foreigner insults, no such “graying” of the subject matter occurs in The War. Although Kelly is shown as brave and sincere, he is through-and-through a dummy.

That is a minor point, however, and in all the film is impressive. Those who have seen and liked any of Balabanov’s earlier films will likely enjoy this one. For those who haven’t seen any of Balabanov’s films, my advice is to watch Brat first, but definitely get around to seeing The War soon. It clearly reveals Balabanov as among the most talented, if not the most talented, voices in Russian cinema in decades.

© Charlie Prince