Prisoner of the Mountains

When two Russian soldiers are ambushed and held in an isolated Muslim mountain village, the village leader offers to trade them for his son, who is being held prisoner, in turn, by Russian troops. To its considerable credit, this wrenching Academy Award-nominee for Best Foreign Film defies the conventions of standard war film. Ironically (and tragically), although the film is set in the present day, it's based on the enduring conflict that Leo Tolstoy wrote about in the novella, "Prisoner of the Caucasus." Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)