Kandagar (Russian: Кандагар; also known as Kandahar) is a Russian film detailing the escape of a Russian crew from Afghanistan Taliban fighters on August 16, 1996. The film stars some of Russia's most famous actors, Vladimir Mashkov, Andrei Panin and Alexander Baluyev.[1] The movie is based on the Russian pilot's, Vladimir Sharpatov, diary.[2] The film was released in Russia on April 4, 2010.[3] The Andrey Kavun film is the first to describe Russia's history in Afghanistan after their withdrawal from the country.[1]

Kandagar (2010 film)
Film poster
Directed by	Andrey Kavun
Screenplay by	Andrey Kavun
Produced by	Valeriy Todorovskiy Ilya Neretin
Starring	{{ubl|Aleksandr Baluev|Vladimir Mashkov|Andrei Panin|[[Aleksandr Evgenyevich Golubev [born 02.07.1983 Moscow, USSR] (actor)|Alexandr Golubev]]}}
Edited by	Gabriella Cristiani
Music by	Richard Horowitz Darin Sysoev
Release date	4 February 2010 (2010-02-04)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Russia
Languages	Russian Dari
Budget	$7 million
Box office	$15 million

Background

On August 3, 1995 a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 from the Afghan Air Force forced down a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 plane with seven Russian nationals on board in what would be called The Aerostan incident. The aircraft was forced to land at a Taliban controlled airfield near Kandahar. The men were held prisoners for more than one year by the Taliban which controlled about half of Afghanistan at the time during the Civil war in Afghanistan (1992–1996). The movie follows their captivity, day-to-day survival, and escape from Taliban.

Unexpected negligence from Russian diplomats caused the prisoners to take steps toward their freedom themselves. The captain was forced to teach Taliban soldiers to fly the plane, and the rest of the hostages were allowed to visit their aircraft for maintenance.

At some point the Russian crew worked out the escape plan, and during one of the maintenance visits for landing gear work, they were able to gain control over the plane.[4] Despite interception efforts by Taliban base guards, which caused the aircraft to start the takeoff having only half of the runway, they were able to take off. Despite several technical difficulties immediately after takeoff, they finally gained a safe cruising altitude and speed.

Cast

• Aleksandr Baluev - Vladimir Ivanovich Sharpatov, pilot
• Vladimir Mashkov - Serega, co-pilot
• Andrei Panin - Alexander Gotov, navigator
• Alexandr Golubev - Vitek, boardwriter
• Bohdan Beniuk - Roman Vakulenko, flight engineer
• Aleksandr Robak - Mark

See also

• The 9th Company

References

External links

• Kandagar at IMDb
• Official site

На других языках

[ru] Кандагар (фильм, 2010)