The 9th Company

2005 Russian war film

"9th Company" redirects here. For the battle on which the film is based on, see Battle for Hill 3234.

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The 9th Company

Film poster

Russian| 9 рота
Directed by| Fyodor Bondarchuk
Written by| Yuri Korotkov
Produced by| Fyodor Bondarchuk
Iskander Galiev
Alexander Rodnyansky
Yelena Yatsura
Salim Abduvaliev
Starring| Fyodor Bondarchuk
Aleksei Chadov
Mikhail Evlanov
Cinematography| Maksim Osadchy
Edited by| Igor Litoninsky
Music by| Dato Evgenidze
Distributed by| Art Pictures Group
Warner Bros. Pictures

Release date

* 29 September 2005 (2005-09-29)[1]

Running time

| 130 minutes
Countries| Russia
Ukraine
Finland
Language| Russian
Budget| $9.5 million[citation needed]
Box office| $26.1 million[2]

The 9th Company (Russian: 9 рота, romanized: 9 rota) 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

[edit]

In 1988, at a recruitment base in Krasnoyarsk, young Soviet Army conscripts say farewell to their families and loved ones before preparing to leave for military duty. Fellow recruits Lyutyi, Chugun, Gioconda, Ryaba, Stas, and Vorobey are assigned to the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment for eventual deployment to Afghanistan.

Arriving at their bootcamp in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan, the recruits meet Chechen conscript Pinochet and their drill instructor, Senior Warrant Officer Dygalo, a traumatized Afghanistan veteran. He trains the recruits hard and treats them harshly, during which the recruits are indoctrinated, overcome their differences, and build bonds. The friends celebrate the end of their training with a local prostitute nicknamed "Snow White". Dygalo is heartbroken when his request to deploy with the recruits is refused. The recruits eventually board a transport plane bound for Bagram airbase.

At Bagram, a fellow paratrooper heading home gives Lyutyi a lucky medallion, which he claims kept him safe through several tours. The veteran boards a transport plane that is hit by a missile on take-off, and it crashes, killing everyone on board. The soldiers are assigned to the 9th company; Pinochet and Ryaba are assigned to the 4th company, separating them from their friends.

The friends meet Warrant Officer "Khokhol" Pogrebnyak, Sergeant "Afanasiy" Afanasiev, and medic Sergeant "Kurbashi" Kurbanhaliev, who all served with Dygalo before he was medically evacuated. The veterans gradually teach the recruits about the realities of the war. The company, led by Captain "Kagraman" Bystrov, leaves the base to deliver supplies to an isolated Soviet Army outpost. They encounter a group of Mujahideen led by Akhmed, who engages the outpost in a short skirmish. The next day, Vorobey shoots and kills Akhmed after discovering him by accident.

The company is deployed as part of Operation Magistral and establish an outpost on a nameless hill, designated as Hill 3234, to protect passing convoys. Ryaba reunites with the friends as the sole survivor of a Mujahideen ambush, which left him wounded and traumatized. Stas falls asleep on guard duty and is beaten by the veterans as punishment. The next day, Khokhol orders Gioconda to find matches, who fearfully enters an Afghan village alone to trade food for them.

A convoy approaches the company's position, but is ambushed by the Mujahideen, inflicting many casualties. During the shootout, Ryaba suffers a mental breakdown and is shot in the head, and Captain Bystrov is also killed. Khokhol leads a platoon to pursue the fighters to a nearby village, where Stas is shot in the back by a village boy and dies. The soviets retaliate with a BM-21 Grad rocket bombardment that annihilates the entire village.

Months later, the 9th company remains deployed on Hill 3234, seeing little action. Pinochet is reassigned to the company, reuniting with his friends, and the men mourn their lost comrades while celebrating New Year's Eve. Days later, Gioconda is immediately killed when an army of Mujahideen attack the hill. Over the course of the battle, many soldiers die on both sides, including Khokhol, Kurbashi, Chugun, Vorobey, and Pinochet. Surrounded and low on ammunition, Lyutyi and Afanasiy lead the remaining men in a final defense, until Mi-24 helicopter gunships arrive and kill the remaining Afghan fighters. Lyutyi emerges as the sole survivor, but learns from an arriving colonel that the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan already began, rendering the battle meaningless. Distraught, Lyutyi tears the lucky medallion from his neck and weeps.

On February 9, 1989, Lyutyi is seen on a BTR-70 convoy departing Afghanistan. In his narration, he tells of the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union, Dygalo's eventual death from a stroke, and the futility of the war itself, but declares that the 9th company earned its own personal victory in the end.

## Cast

[edit]

* Artur Sergeevich Smolyaninov as Private then Sergeant Oleg Lutaev (Lyutyy)
* Aleksey Aleksandrovich Chadov as Private Volodya Vorobiev (Vorobey)
* Konstantin Vitalyevich Kryukov as Private Ruslan Petrovskyy (Dzhokonda)
* Ivan Anatolievich Kokorin as Private Chugainov (Chugun)
* Mikhail Mikhailovich Evlanov as Private Ryabokon (Ryaba)
* Artyom Nikitich Mikhalkov as Private Stasenko (Stas)
* Soslan Totrazovich Fidarov as Private Bigbulatov (Pinochet)
* Ivan Nikolaev as Seryy
* Mikhail Evgenyevich Porechenkov as Senior Praporschik Alexandr Dygalo
* Fedor Sergeevich Bondarchuk as Warrant Officer Pogrebnyak (Khokhol)
* Dmitriy Eldarovich Mukhamadeev as Sergeant Afanasiev (Afanasiy)
* Irina Anatolyevna Rakhmanova as Belosnezhka (Snow White girl)
* Amadu Vasilyevich Mamadakov as Sergeant Kurbanhaliev (Kurbashi)
* Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Shein as Patefon (as Aleksandr Sheyn)
* Aleksei Kravchenko as Captain Bystrov
* Aleksandr Nikolaevich Bashirov as Pomidor
* Mikhail Olegovich Yefremov as Veteran, who gives talisman
* Stanislav Sergeevich Govorukhin as a training regiment commander
* Andrey Ivanovich Krasko as unknown Colonel in Afgan
* Aleksandr Anatolyevich Lykov as Major of combat engineers
* Aleksey Serebryakov as Reconnaissance Captain
* Oles Mikhailovich Katsion as Mikhey
* Karen Petrovich Martirosyan as Ashot
* Marat Alikovich Gudiev as Akhmet
* Denis Sergeevich Moshkin as 'Chernyy aist' ('the Black Stork')
* Aleksandr Yurievuch Kucherenko as Barber
* Svetlana Andreevna Ivanova as Olya
* Evgeniy Arutyunyan as Radioman
* Mikhail Borisovich Vladimirov as Tank driver
* Mikhail Yurievich Solodko as Military commissariat officer

## Release

[edit]

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.

## Reception

[edit]

### Box office

[edit]

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.[3]

### Critical response

[edit]

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.[4]

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.[5]

### Awards and nominations

[edit]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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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.

## See also

[edit]

* The Truth About 9th Company
* List of Russian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of submissions to the 79th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "The Bain Graffy Film Collection". 14 December 2021.
2. ^ "9th Company". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
3. ^ "Afghanistan War Movie Breaks Russian Box Office Record". Mosnews.com. 2005-10-05. Archived from the original on 2005-12-10.`{{cite news}}`: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
4. ^ "9th Company". Rotten Tomatoes.
5. ^ "Putin praise for Russian war film". BBC News. 8 November 2005.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website (in Russian)
* 9th Company at IMDb
* 9th Company at AllMovie
* 9th Company at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk

Feature films|

* The 9th Company (2005)
* Dark Planet (2008)
* Stalingrad (2013)
* Attraction (2017)
* Invasion (2020)

Television|

* Psycho (2020)

* v
* t
* e

Golden Eagle Award for Best Motion Picture

National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia

* The Cuckoo (2002)
* The Return (2003)
* 72 Meters (2004)
* The 9th Company (2005)
* The Island (2006)
* 12 (2007)
* Wild Field (2008)
* Stilyagi (2009)
* How I Ended This Summer (2010)
* Elena (2011)
* White Tiger (2012)
* Legend № 17 (2013)
* Sunstroke (2014)
* About Love (2015)
* Paradise (2016)
* Salyut 7 (2017)
* Anna's War (2018)
* Text (2019)
* A Siege Diary (2020)

* v
* t
* e

Nika Award for Best Picture

1988–2000|

* Repentance (1988)
* The Cold Summer of 1953 (1989)
* Ashik Kerib (1990)
* The Asthenic Syndrome (1991)
* Promised Heaven (1992)
* Encore, Once More Encore! (19933)
* Makarov (1994)
* Passions (1995)
* Peculiarities of the National Hunt (1996)
* Prisoner of the Mountains (1997)
* The Thief (1998)
* Of Freaks and Men (1999)
* Khrustalyov, My Car! (2000)

2001–present|

* His Wife's Diary (2001)
* Taurus (2002)
* The Cuckoo (2003)
* The Return (2004)
* Our Own (2005)
* The 9th Company (2006)
* The Island (2007)
* Mongol (2008)
* Stilyagi (2009)
* Room and a Half (2010)
* The Edge (2011)
* Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman (2012)
* Faust (2013)
* The Geographer Drank His Globe Away (2014)
* Hard to Be a God (2015)
* Dear Hans, Dear Pyotr [ru] (2016)
* Paradise (2017)
* Arrhythmia (2018)
* Anna's War (2019)
* A Frenchman (2020)
* Dear Comrades! (2021)

* v
* t
* e

Russian submission for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

* Close to Eden (1992)
* Burnt by the Sun (1994)
* A Moslem (1995)
* Prisoner of the Mountains (1996)
* The Thief (1997)
* The Barber of Siberia (1998)
* Moloch (1999)
* His Wife's Diary (2000)
* The Romanovs: An Imperial Family (2001)
* House of Fools (2002)
* The Return (2003)
* Night Watch (2004)
* The Italian (2005)
* The 9th Company (2006)
* 12 (2007)
* Mermaid (2008)
* Ward No. 6 (2009)
* The Edge (2010)
* Burnt by the Sun 2 (2011)
* White Tiger (2012)
* Stalingrad (2013)
* Leviathan (2014)
* Sunstroke (2015)
* Paradise (2016)
* Loveless (2017)
* Sobibor (2018)
* Beanpole (2019)
* Dear Comrades! (2020)
* Unclenching the Fists (2021)

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