Spiritual Voices

In late 1994, Alexander Sokurov spent a number of months with a regiment of the Russian Army, which at the time was guarding the Tajik-Afghan border against incursions by Taliban fighters. The result is this five-part, five-hour film that evocatively shows the soldiers’ lives in this desolate environment.

The political-military situation never becomes clear, but the faceless enemy is never far away. The camera records units on patrol in the rugged mountains, the dust and the filth. The troops’ daily routine consists of military formalities and domestic chores: preparing sober meals and defusing landmines. If weapons have to be used, the camera remains safely behind the line, a microphone recording the sounds of battle from a safe distance.

This film is all about aesthetic expression, with lengthy landscape shots and a mix of crystal-clear ambient sounds and classical music on the soundtrack. With a detached gaze, Sokurov registers the blend of fear and boredom that dominates the soldiers’ daily existence, providing this elegiac war diary with a transcendental quality.