Clean Thursday

How do the days pass by for a front-line soldier? Young Russians pushed into the horror of the Chechnyan war are confused, scared and not prepared to die. Their diaries, letters and thoughts about the young girls and fiancées they have left back home may give them temporary comfort but not salvation from fear and death. With cinematography that emphasises the soldiers’ solitude and confusion, the filmmaker creates an atmosphere of being trapped in the reality of war. The soundtrack focuses on the interior monologues of journeymen soldiers uncertain if they will survive tomorrow's battles. Contemplations about being anonymously shipped home in a coffin is visually expressed by contrasting everyday routine actions like shaving, cooking, eating and bathing with acts of war, like being forced to jump from a plane without a parachute. The sound of soldiers’ voices during air operations is made poignant by interrupting a black image with animated white lines, which causes a certain uneasiness. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)