Prisoner Of The Mountains, an Oscar-nominated movie by Russian director Sergei Bodrov, concerns two Russian soldiers—one experienced and jaded, the other a naïve recruit—held captive in a Muslim village in the Caucasus. Held as ransom for the village leader's prisoner son, the soldiers bond with each other and begin to form tentative, and always potentially tragic, friendships with the villagers. Loosely adapted from a Tolstoy short story, Bodrov does an excellent job portraying the tense political conflict in a balanced manner, without sacrificing the deeper human element so often subjugated by politics. Abetted by excellent performances from Oleg Menshikov (Burnt By The Sun) and his own son, Bodrov demonstrates an ability to turn a conflict few outsiders know much about into a universal situation. Prisoner Of The Mountains hauntingly conveys an intensely personal view of war obscured by unfathomable statistics and 15-second news clips.