Release Date (UK DVD) – 21st February 2011
Certificate (UK) – 15
Country – UK
Runtime – 117 mins
Director – Aleksei Balabanov
Starring – Aleksey Chadov, Ian Kelly, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Sergey Bodrov Jor.
In something of a departure from his recent role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, new DVD release War stars Ian Kelly alongside Aleksey Chadov (Nightwatch) in a brutal, savage and uncompromising tale of revenge in war-torn Chechnya.
Filmed in a mixture of English and Russian, War tells the tale of actor John Boyle (Kelly) after he is captured while on tour in Georgia, and held hostage by Chechen rebels. When the ransom doesn’t materialise Boyle is released in order to raise the money in Britain while his girlfriend is left in Chechnya, guaranteeing his certain return. What begins as a dark and gruesome depiction of life as a Chechen prisoner soon turns into a tale of revenge and human emotion as Boyle must face up to the realities of life in a war-torn country, and decide once and for all if he is to become a part of that which he so abhors.
One of the most striking aspects of War, aside from its grim and harrowing tale, is the power of the acting. Ivan’s retrospective commentary is an effective way of breaking the film up and giving it a real documentary edge, while Ian Kelly is truly outstanding in his role as the innocent, despairing actor. As the tale unfolds not only is there a real and very palpable sense of Boyle’s desperation, but there is a very remarkable sense of the ‘reality’ of the story laid out before us. Not only is Chechnya a land at war with Russia, but it is also a land at war with itself. The ‘Shepherd’ character for example is Chechen, but is at the same time an enemy of the antagonist Chechens. The whole absurdity of the situation — and the situation of war in general — really hits home in one particular scene where in Boyle and Ivan return to Chechnya and attempt to hijack a vehicle with real and very striking consequences. War is everywhere, and as Ivan so rightly reminds Boyle, war is not guns, ‘War is blood’.
War is a must-see film not just for independent cinema fans, but for anyone out there who takes an interest in the state of the world at large. Harrowing and grim to the last, while not for the faint hearted, film-lovers will be left in no doubt as to the grim and unforgiving message centred firmly at the film’s core.
War will be available on DVD exclusively at Sainsbury’s from 21st February 2011.
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