9th Company

9th Company is a Russian historical war movie set in Afghanistan during the Soviet war. The movie starts out with recruits that have never been deployed heading for training in Uzbekistan. They are met by Dygalo (Mikhail Porechenkov), a war veteran with a couple of deployments under his belt. At first the recruits and Dygalo do not see eye to eye, but as training progresses there is an unbreakable bond that is formed under the torturous situation. Dygalo wants the recruits to see that war is hard and that they need to depend on one another.

After training is finished, the recruits head off to the air base. They are initially assigned to the 9th Company, coincidentally the same unit that Dygalo served in. The recruits realize that the training in Uzbekistan is nothing like what they are experiencing. They watch an airplane get shot down and crash as a result of enemy fire. The reality of war hits the recruits. Their first assignment is to protect a hill in Operation Magistral, from Mujahidin soldiers.

As the fight ensues, it is clear at first that this is a losing battle, but the recruits along with other soldiers dig in and hold the hill until there is only one of the original recruits left battling for the hill along with other soldiers. At the very last moment of fighting the Mujahedin soldiers, the hill is saved. Reinforcements come in to replenish supplies and soldiers. The battle itself lasts two days. The movie is based on some historical facts of the battle of Hill 3234 in Afghanistan during 1988.

This movie was originally released in Russia in 2005. It was not shown in the United States until 2010, and it went directly to DVD. Even with its historical inaccuracies, the movie received high praises from Russia and surrounding countries.