Spiritual Voices (1995)

In an isolated outpost between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, in the heart of the huge Central Asian continental landmass, Alexander Sokurov filmed during several months the daily lives of a brigade of Russian army border guards. Abandoned on the frontiers of a ruined empire, they are left to face an omnipresent yet invisible enemy. A magnificent poem in five parts whose pace is set by the tensions of battle, surveillance under a merciless sun and patrols along mine-laden mountain paths, "Spiritual Voices" is a monumental meditation on the human condition in an overwhelming environment