The Prisoner

Julia (Julie Cox), an English girl working with an NGO medical aid group in the Caucasus is abducted for ransom by bandits. She escapes into the mountains during the first attacks of the Russian Army on Groznyy (1995) and is found by a Kabardinian violinist spending his summer in a mountain cabin. The bandits, deceiving the authorities and the British Embassy into thinking that she is in their custody, demand a huge ransom of the British Embassy. In the meantime, Ruslan (Andrey Chernichov), a despondent violinist, takes care of Julia's wounds, and in the enforced cohabitation of the cabin the two young people realize the great differences in their cultures, thus creating many arguments and conflicts between them. Eventually, through dialogue and respect and their mutual love of music the two find themselves falling in love. In the meantime, the Russian Security apparatus continues its search of the lost English woman, and the British Embassy is prepared to pay the huge ransom demanded by the original kidnappers, unaware of the deception, creating a thriller subplot. The film is an uplifting love story that shows another picture of Russia to the international audience; this is a multi-national multi-ethnic Russia where the mountaineer's traditions dictates behavior, even in love.