The Search

A French NGO worker stationed in Chechnya during the late 1990s war takes in a young Chechen boy who has been separated from his family after witnessing the slaughter of his parents by Russian soldiers. As the woman forms a bond with the traumatised child, the film interweaves his story with that of his teenage sister desperately searching for him across a devastated landscape, and a young Russian conscript struggling to retain his humanity amid the brutality of military service. The narrative draws on the experiences of multiple characters caught up in the conflict to explore the human cost of war on ordinary civilians and soldiers alike.