War (2002)

Two prisoners of war are released on the condition that they return with a ransom for another captive in the taut Russian military adventure War (2002). Set amidst the Russian-Chechen civil war, Aleksei Balabanov’s critically acclaimed epic stars Aleksei Chadov as a Russian soldier who accompanies a captured British actor (Ian Kelly) back to base to raise the ransom money for a female hostage (Ingeborga Dapkunaite). Feeling that they’re being used in a vile trap, Ivan (Chadov) and John (Kelly) return to the Chechen front to carry out a last-gasp suicide mission. It’s a shame our heroes will be shuffling off this mortal coil––who knows how many further opportunities with Dapkunaite and statuesque redhead Viktoriya Smirnova may have been presented.