But their independence did not come easily.
In fact the Chechens are essentially a Muslim nation of about a million and a half, and since the early 19th century the Chechens have been fighting the Russians for their independence. Understanding a bit of history helps the viewer understand the political tensions in the film. The dictator Joseph Stalin ordered the entire population of Chechens deported to Central Asia in 1944, because the Chechens allegedly collaborated with the Nazis to bring down the Russians. This bitter memory is part of what drives the Chechens to insist on being independent of Russia.
Another subplot that has impact is the fact that the two captive Russian soldiers may be wearing the same uniform but they see the world in vastly different ways. They both dance to a Louis Armstrong song ("Let My People Go") and yet they bother each other too. But when the older soldier, Sasha, comes down to earth from his crustiness and becomes softly nostalgic, he reaches out and touches the hand of his younger colleague and the music in the soundtrack blares the song "The Slavyanka,"...
Again, as presented earlier in this paper, a perceptive person viewing this film could reach a conclusion that this is a pacifist film; at the very least the director and screenwriter have brought a short story from a giant of literature into a modern context and presented most of the characters as quite human and likable. The Muslim nation has been brutally mistreated over the centuries by the Soviets / Russians, so the story takes that overall theme and brings it down to earth with very human tensions that result in very human interactions. This film shows tired soldiers juxtaposed against fierce rebel fighters whose convictions are more powerful than the Russians. Interestingly, one of Dina's roles is to tell the soldiers they will have a proper burial, but the audience does not know at the end exactly what happened.
