66th THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
31 OCTOBER → 9 NOVEMBER 2025
Special Programme: New Russian Cinema After Perestroika (1989-1999)

1998 95 35mm Color
A place somewhere in the Caucasus, which, like Chechnya, is constantly plagued by war and skirmishes. During a raid on a village, Russian soldiers -little more than boys themselves- were unable to prevent the death of a child killed by a land mine. The distraught child's mother shoots the village policeman and is shot herself by the panicking soldiers, who, by way of punishment, find themselves posted to a checkpoint in a remote area for thirty days. Although they don't actually see the enemy -an intermittently active sniper- the soldiers can certainly sense his presence behind every stone, and soon begin to suspect every farmer they encounter...