Odnazhdy v pustyne

Palmyra/Once In The Desert is a interesting, enjoyable movie about the Russian intervention in Syria or more specifically about the life of Captain Shaberov a D'Miner/Sapper. He is an experienced D'Miner who is training a group of Syrian soldiers in D'Mining. The storyline is really good, it has a pretty major plot twist later on that the viewer won't see coming, and that will have you saying "Why? Just why?", like seriously when it was revealed I was so sad and heartbroken. Still a solid, enjoyable storyline following the adventures of Captain Shaberov in Syria.

The movie even has a really nice romantic arc to it, I would have thought trying to include a romance and romantic storyline would take away from the rest of the movie and the seriousness of the job and dangers a sapper must face, but the romance angle was worked in really well in such a way that while you may be a bit surprised at first like I was you'll really like it as well looking back at it.

The cast all seemed to fit their roles really well and put on enjoyable performances. Aleksandr Robak who plays Captain Shaberov is does a good job portraying a veteran sapper, father trying to reconnect to his daughter and a man who finds love in the middle of the Syrian war. Pavel Chinaryov is an annoying rookie captain, but by the end he isn't to bad and the actor does a good job.

Ekaterina Nesterova plays Jamilya, A Syrian woman and Captain Shaberov's love interest. The actress is Russian(I'm assuming by her name) yet she plays a Syrian woman and does a really good job of it as well, albeit one who says her father is Russian and her mother Syrian therefore she is mixed. She also looks really middle eastern/Syrian to me in the movie and I wouldn't have guessed that she was a Russian actress at all. So really good job overall with her casting and the performance she delivered.

The fighting scenes, explosions, blood and guts and all that, looks and feels very real, so props to the director and team there as well. Great VFX and SFX.

Anyway overall Palmyra is a enjoyable war movie that does a great job of depicting the life of a Russian Sapper in Syria. It has a good storyline, a lovely romantic angle, great fight scenes, explosions and the like. A well deserved 8/10 from me.

P. S. I watched a English dubbed version of the movie unfortunately. The Russian parts were dubbed into English but the Arabic parts are all still in Arabic thankfully. Would definitely have preferred watching the film in it's original language though.