The Caucasus is at war. The British couple John, Margaret, and the Russian soldiers Ivan and Medvedev are taken hostage by Chechen rebels. When John is released to collect a large ransom for his bride, Ivan escapes with him. But when he fails to find the money, John turns to Ivan for help.

Aleksey Balabanov turns his unflinching gaze to the Chechen conflict at the start of the millennium. Hugely controversial on its initial release, War finds Balabanov firmly in genre territory for one of his most complex examinations of post-Soviet Russian identity and its relationship with the west.