The 9th Company

The 9th Company (9 рота) is a 2005 Russian war film directed by Fedor Bondarchuk and set during the Soviet–Afghan War. The film is loosely based on a real-life battle that took place at Hill 3234 in early 1988, during Operation Magistral, the last large-scale Soviet military operation in Afghanistan. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

The film was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

Plot
At a farewell ceremony in Krasnoyarsk, a band of young Soviet Army recruits is preparing to leave for military duty. One of the conscripts, Lyutyi, forms a group with Chugun, Gioconda, Ryaba, Stas, Seryi, and Vorobey. They have different interests and personalities that initially make it difficult for them to form bonds with each other.

On arrival at their bootcamp in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan, they meet, Pinochet, a Chechen recruit from Grozny, and their drill instructor, Senior Praporschik Dygalo, a seasoned, traumatized veteran of several tours in Afghanistan and a brutal trainer who treats the recruits harshly. During their training, the recruits overcome their differences and build bonds. Between the training sessions, they receive lessons in operating plastic explosives and a presentation on the ethnic groups and customs of Afghanistan. During an orientation, a Soviet General asks if anyone in the VDV has changed their minds as they are about to be reassigned to another unit. Vorobey and Seryi initially intend to quit but decide to stay in the unit.

Later, Dygalo wakes up the recruits and beats everyone in a frantic manner. The recruits then leave for Afghanistan on a plane.

On their arrival at Bagram air base, they are greeted by a group of VDV troops who have fulfilled their military service and are due to return home. One of the departing soldiers gives one of the new arrivals, Lyutyi, a talisman that he claims has kept him safe through several tours. After departing, the transport plane is hit by a rocket, giving the new recruits their first taste of war. The soldiers are assigned to the 9th company. Pinochet and Ryaba are reassigned to another unit, separating them from Lyutyi and their friends.

They meet Warrant Officer Pogrebnyak "Khokhol", who is Dygalo's second-in-command, Sergeant Afanasiev "Afanasiy", and Sergeant Kurbanhaliev "Kurbashi" and learn that they all had served with Dygalo before he was sent away to a hospital. Pomidor gives Chugun the machine gun that Private Samylin used during his duty in Afghanistan. Khokhol tells about Dygalo's life and habits in the company during his tours of duty in Afghanistan. The company leaves the headquarters to deliver supplies to an outpost of Soviet troops which would be the new component of the 9th company. Upon delivering the needed supplies, Patefon invites the company to a shooting exercise. They come across a group of mujahideen led by Akhmed, who exchanges insults with Patefon before engaging in a short skirmish. The next day, Vorobey shoots and kills Akhmed after being frightened when he slips on a rock.

The company is deployed to the front as a part of Operation Magistral and receive the order to hold a nameless hill at all costs. They fortify the hill and turn it into a base. That night they are attacked by a group of mujahideen. Only Ryaba survives the attack and is left speechless and crippled. Stas falls asleep during guard duty and is beaten by Khokhol, Afanasiy and Kurbashi. The next day, Gioconda is instructed to find matches. He is eventually given matches by a kid living in a village in return for food. As he leaves the village, he encounters members of the company led by Captain Bystrov (Aleksei Kravchenko), who were ready to storm the village.

A couple days later, a convoy arrives to the base, but is ambushed by the mujahideen, resulting in many casualties and several vehicles destroyed. During the shootout, an injured Ryaba suffers a mental breakdown and is shot in the head as he yells for the fighting to stop. Captain Bystrov is also killed. Meanwhile, Khokhol, Lyutyi, and Vorobey attack the underground positions of the mujahideen, but are forced to return upon learning that their enemies are already in the village. The company attempts to clear out the village, which appears to be empty. Stas sees a young boy and decides to spare him, but as soon as he turns around he is shot in the back by the boy and dies shortly thereafter. The company is forced to leave as the village is shelled by BM-21 Grad rocket launchers, while the company lament the death of Stas.

Later, Afanasiy leads some men of the company to steal food cans from a passing army convoy. The company celebrates New Year's Eve while listening to Mikhail Gorbachev's speech on the radio. Pinochet arrives in the company's base to reunite with his friends: he got into trouble with his unit and was reassigned to the 9th company.

The next morning, while the entire company is asleep, Gioconda leaves the base to draw the landscape; a large group of Mujahideen arrives and he is shot in the head while trying to warn the others of the upcoming assault. Reacting to the surprise attack, the 9th Company fires back but are shelled by mortars. As he tries to ask for reinforcements by radio, Patefon is killed by a mortar shell resulting in disruptions in the communication network. The company is able to return to the trenches and engage the mujahideen, Khokhol orders some of the men to shell the enemy positions with mortars but Khokhol's position is hit by a rocket that kills two of his men, preventing further shelling of enemy lines. Soon, the mujahideen break the line and hand-to-hand combat ensues. Another round of shelling begins and a rocket kills Khokhol while Kurbashi is killed by a bullet. Vorobey is hit on his knees while fighting and is unable to make his way to the lines of his comrades, Chugun uses his machine gun to attack the mujahideen in the hopes of covering him but is killed shortly afterwards. Injured and being approached by mujahideen fighters, Vorobey detonates a grenade on himself. The company charges the approaching mujahideen lines and are able to push the fighters back.

Stranded with low ammunition and no means of communications, the company takes stock of the situation: only seven of them survived, all officers are dead, and they're running low on ammunition. Lyutyi, along with Afanasiy, leads the last men of the company in defense of the hill. They fight the last fighters till the last man when Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships arrive and kill the remaining Afghan fighters. During the fight, Afanasiy is shot in the chest while the last of the company are killed.

Lyutyi is the only one from the company who remains alive. Speechless and crippled, he tells the Colonel that the convoy now may pass as the 9th company has fulfilled their mission. The colonel says that there will be no convoy as the Soviets are already withdrawing from Afghanistan and wonders why they have not heard the orders on the radio. Upon realizing what happened to the 9th Company, the colonel comforts him. Lyutyi passes through the dead bodies of the entire company and removes the talisman from his neck as he kneels to the ground and cries.

Later, on February 15, 1989, a column of BTR-70 is seen leaving Afghanistan. Lyutyi is on one of the vehicles along with other soldiers. He narrates that two years later the country they have been fighting for, the Soviet Union, had ceased to exist and that wearing its medals had become unfashionable. He also speaks of the fate of Senior Praporschik Dygalo, who after being reassigned to Tula to train recruits, will die a year later. He also says that years later the veterans like him in the conflict will be scattered by their new lives. He concludes by saying that the 9th Company won its own war.

Release
The film was released in September 2005. Although first released in 2005, and broadcast on TV in several nations, it was not released in the US until 2010 on DVD.

Box office
The 9th Company was successful in the Russian box office, generating $7.7 million in its first five days of release alone, a new domestic record.

Critical response
Based on 16 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, The 9th Company has an overall approval rating from critics of 69%, with an average score of 5.93/10.

The film received a mixed reaction from the veterans of that war, who pointed to a number of inaccuracies, but nevertheless, judging by ticket sales, it was embraced by the general public and even by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Awards and nominations
In 2006, Russia selected the film as its candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film nomination. It was also given the Golden Eagle Award for Best Feature Film by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts.