Lungin is burying Afghans? We all died in the Afghan war. Even those who are still alive. The Brotherhood concludes with a monologue by a lieutenant who was among the last to leave Afghanistan in 1989. The hero of the film slowly pronounces his voiceover words: the effect of the significance of what was said is obtained, the monologue draws a line under the film and under the war itself. He says, “We have done this and that, this and this has happened to us.” Thus, the story shown in the film becomes not just someone’s personal truth of war, but a general, collective truth. The vile Soviet general, the greedy Soviet soldiers, become not just episodes of war, but the general rule. Compare this monologue with Ivan’s final monologue from Balabanov’s War. He does not make any generalizations, there is only his personal truth, which you can not take away and sew to other soldiers.
Who gave the director the right to share the truth of the war with thousands of living veterans? Here is the testimony of a war veteran: The rebels and gangs did their "black" deeds. Afghanistan is the land of drugs... During the periods of sowing and harvesting of drug crops, the intensity of hostilities decreased. After cleaning, the narcotic raw materials were exported to Pakistan or Iran, where their sale and purchase of weapons, ammunition, cars and other materiel were organized. This man was well aware of the evil he was fighting. Any of the heroes of the "Brotherhood" at least once so clearly explains their purpose of stay in a foreign country, not counting the general phrases about the defense of the Motherland?
But they did not break us, and following the order,
We didn’t all come back with the victory.
Not for profit, not for reward.
And for the freedom of another people,
So that they do not have unnecessary obstacles. It's from a soldier song about Afghanistan. Too pretentious? Here's another one:
The sky over Kabul is blue,
I will not forget the mountains.
Dear Motherland,
How much did you know about the loss? Isn't that true of war? There must have been rock songs like the ones in this movie. But was there something more like the lyrics? Why limit the truth of war to the music of scum, as they call themselves? Of all the possible truths, some of the lowest and dirtiest is chosen. Do you like digging in the mud?
I ate three times a day so much food that five children could eat it. These are the words of a grateful Afghan who was sheltered by the Soviet country. Of course, there is no such gratitude in the film either.
The first half of the tape is captivated by the intensity of actions, when a stretch can suddenly appear behind every door of a village cleared from militants. Towards the end, the pace slows down, giving way to the bulge of the theme of the “medieval” nobility of the rebels against the background of the swine behavior of the enemy. The problem with one single truth, presented as universal, is to scatter it when embedded in a broader context. If your “rebels” were such noble people with higher technical Soviet education, why did they not build a normal non-resource country after the “aggressor” left?
“The Soviet Union died with us,” the lieutenant continues his monologue. He's lying down smoking, listening to music from that trophy player he so dared not take from the corpse. The face of the military expresses satisfaction and tranquility - he is pleased with the end of this era. "I had to learn to live again" - of course, this is a hint of the 90s, a new and, judging by the encouraging expression of the lieutenant's face, a much happier era for him. “Cargo 200” mercilessly criticized the first shoots of the 90s, while showing the continuity of the change of eras. The “Brotherhood” criticizes Soviet militarism, naively dividing epochs with a wall of a satisfied lieutenant’s face and forgetting that the unfinished mission abroad a few years later made itself felt by the tragedy in the Caucasus.
6 out of 10
Original