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An incredibly misleading synopsis


The synopsis for Afghan Breakdown is lengthy and tries to be comprehensive. However, it is misleading. It is not just imprecise in details, it is outright wrong, misinforming and full of misunderstandings and misconceptions. I am prone to believe that the author of this synopsis watched the movie in Russian without understanding that language and that he was just guessing and guesstimating what this movie is about. I try to give the author the benefit of doubt and I want to believe that he or she did not mean to mislead the readers on purpose or that he or she does not suffer from dotage. Just a few examples of how terribly wrong the synopsis is: (1) Major Bandura did not order POW into truck to set them ablaze. It was done by sergeant Arsyonov behind Bandura's back and against Bandura's specific orders. (2) The new junior officer (Steklov) was not transferred from Czechoslovakia. He came to Afghanistan right after graduating from a Soviet military academy. (3) Bandura did not make a deal with Gulakhan to provide his men with prostitutes! Has the author lost his mind or what? Actually, Bandura made deal with Gulakhan to arrange a meeting with leader of guerilla unit 1 to negotiate a truce during the withdrawal of Bandura's regiment from Afghanistan. The girls who went with soldiers to the Afghan town were Soviet army female physicians and nurses, not prostitutes!!! They did not go with soldiers to have sex for money, or sex at all, they just joint small military convoy to travel for shopping to a town where soldiers protected them in a potentially hostile environment. This part of synopsis is written in a very misleading way and it is also somewhat offensive! (4) Bandura did not put a pistol in the dead man's hand. He put a hand grenade there! (5) Guerilla commander did not put Gulakhan under pressure for suspected ties to the Soviets! Of course he new that Gulakhan had contacts in Soviet base! He did not have to suspect it! Gulakhan earned his college degree in USSR as foreign student from Afghanistan and he was a mediator respected by both sides of the conflict. Actually, the commander of guerilla unit 2 bullied and intimidated Gulakhan because Gulakhan married a girl whom the commander wanted to marry himself! (6) It was not Bandura's sergeant who beat and interrogate Gulakhan. It was nobody less than colonel Zhigalov, a regiment commander. And in fact Zhigalov did not really interrogate Gulakhan, but hit him a few times with a fist out of frustration that his people returning from a peaceful visit to a village were ambushed, which resulted in one KIA and a high profile general's son badly wounded. (7) Soviets did not plan to do any retaliatory mission against the village! They agreed in a staff meeting that the villagers and guerilla unit 1 were not responsible for the ambush and had approved a mission with specific aim to kill the leader of guerilla group 2 while avoiding any hostile activities against guerilla group 1 and against the village civilian population. The obliteration of the whole village was not planned and it happened as a result of unfortunate mistake. When Soviets killed guerilla leader 2, bystanding leader of guerilla unit 1 was also killed, which resulted in an unplanned fight of encircled soviet marines with two guerilla groups. The village was destroyed by a massive firepower of helicopters providing close combat support to Bandura's unit. Bandura was a man of honor and integrity. He did not want to live after taking part, even indirect, in the carnage and destruction of the village. He let himself get killed by a surviving boy from the destroyed village

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