Tuesday, April 1, 2008

9 Rota (9 th company) (Russia, 2005)



This is a Russian movie directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk and deals about the war between the Soviet Union and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Young recruits are sent from a boot camp to Afganistan to protect hill no. 3234. It takes place in 1988 (close to the end of the war)

I guess the storyline can be compared to that of Full metal jacket. The first part of the movie the characters are introduced and being trained in a bootcamp and the second part deals about the unknown hills and caves where danger ever is to be found.

I have to say just like the heroic characters that we often see in Hollywood cinema we see people some strong fighters who wants to fight for glory but there are also characters that are scared, or one is a painter that goes to war to see the beauty of it.
I have to admit I had to grow into this film but when you do it will keep you in chains. The brilliant shots of indegineous villages were you feel the discomfort everywhere, a blind old man stares and the Russian soldier keeps shouting Haram, Haram. Is anybody to trust, even of they are old or young?



And honour to the Russians, Afghanistan was taboo for a long time in Russia. They left the country cause the Soviet Union was falling apart, but they did not win the war. They did not win, even though they knew the country/landscape. So once again the question raises, what do the Americans do in Afghanistan? This country has never been liberated and not a war against it has been won. Once again it won't happen.

I think it's great Russia seems to understand their mistakes as well, maybe in the future finally westerns will understand that Russian soldiers are also humans and I never understood why they are forgotten for WWII. All glory to the North American continent but without the Soviet union and their sacrifices at Stalingrad we would never be liberated.
Well it was a great movie with plenty of action, drama and the total nonsense of protecting some hills. Not a happy movie, but the reality of the insanity of war.


Cherry blossom



Due to the fact that I watched 'memoirs of a geisha' last night I was pleasently surprised that I found some beautiful pictures about cherry blossom in Japan in the Chinese-international newspaper chinadaily.com.
It is beautiful and mysterious, makes you long for Geisha's in Kimono's.