Freier Fall

Because he is rebellious and has a criminal past, eighteen-year-old Kolima is drafted into the "Saboteurs," a special unit of the Russian army for missions behind enemy lines. He is trained as a sniper. His attempts to escape are thwarted. This is followed by two years of deployment in Chechnya. After his discharge, he wanders through his hometown of Bender, sleepless, filled with hatred and restlessness, not without a perverse longing for the clear conditions of the dirty war. Eventually, he travels to Siberia, hoping to find solace in solitude and nature. Nicolai Lilin's "Free Fall" is a detailed and brutal war narrative, an unflinching account of a Chechen fighter who, on one hand, was forcibly recruited and hates the regime and its war, but on the other hand, participated professionally and successfully.