OUR OWN

СВОИ

(2004)

GENRE: WAR/DRAMA
DURATION: 135mins
DIRECTOR: DMITRY MESKHIEV
CAST: SERGEI GARMASH, BOGDAN STUPKA, MIKHAIL EVLANOV, NATALIA SURKOVA, FYODR BONDARCHUK, KONSTANTIN KHABENSKIY

Dmitri Meskhiyev’s harrowing Our Own, received the top award - the Golden St. George - at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2004. It is the story of three prisoners who manage to escape from German captivity in 1941 and hide in a nearby village. There one of the escaped prisoners meets his father - an anti-Bolshevik and former kulak - who is the local headman and has links with the occupying forces. The drama becomes complex as he tries to protect his own son as well as the other officers who have escaped with him.  The film is “skilfully directed, the action sequences violent and disturbing, and the framing of characters against landscape worthy of some of the masters of widescreen composition.” – London Tim