I watched Beyond Borders with Angelina Jolie. I still sob.
It is too bad these Chechen fellas have such a poor PR. Killing and
kidnapping journalists and humanitarian aid workers didn't quite help
the cause. They mixed priorities and it seems some of them sought
profits and money in the times when Chechens were decimated.
Putin chose new Chechen puppet leader from such background as it
seems.
After 9/11 it was difficult that US would back up any Islamic nations
seekign freedom. Muslims were now the bad guys. This is the prime
reason why Chechens ought to have walked on eggshells when dealing
with journalists and human aid.
It is a chance missed, and the history does not forgive.
Essentially they still have a chance. Each Chechen kid with Internet
access ought to seek all the knowledge it can from the net, and finish
all the education it can. Now Putin is keeping them low since smart
Chechens would not be beaten up so easily.
This films made them look bad. Somewhere Nick blames West for not
seeing, but mostly after wathcing of the film impression is that black
people are killing themselves and Chechens were killing each other.
(Khmer Rouge in Cambodia are the beasts but even the government
soldiers are not much better. The only things to deal with Khmer Rouge
is to bribe them with AK-47s and/or kill them. No re-socialization is
promoted for guys who grew up Khmer Rouge having AKs and killing since
age 5 or so.)
Yup, I did notice ruthless Russian tank in the movie, thank you.
That's all that passed a political correctness filter.
Ransom kidnapping and the like did not quite help us to perceive
Chechens like guys who are oppressed and deserve freedom. Yet, in this
movie, Chechens rape and not the other way around like the reporters
said IRL. If they did too, they failed at one more point where history
does not forgive.
Still, the movie is more than good all in all. You feel that click
under Angelina's foot when she stepped on the mine. You want to get up
from the chair and push Nick and Sarah towards IRC camp, but their
legs are just frozen and not moving. The pursuers playing cat and
mouse. I remember that from some nightmares, it is just that IRL one
does not wake up.
You feel luck betraying you. Something snaps. This time it is your
bone. Somehow you subconsciously hoped you will live forever, but now
you feel that vain hope betrays you.
It is all in that click. No way out.
I cannot even to begin to grasp all the suffering depicted in the
movie, all the irony and bitter blows of the destiny, imperfection of
good guys and their tragic end.
Despite all bias, it is a good work to learn from.
The Chechens 
Linear Mode
