Peshawar Waltz also known as Escape from Afghanistan is a 1994 Russian

Cinema of Russia

The cinema of Russia began in the Russian Empire, widely developed under the Soviet and in the years following the fall of the Soviet system, the Russian film industry would remain internationally recognised...

 action film

Action film

Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

 directed and written by Timur Bekmambetov

Timur Bekmambetov

Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov is a Kazakh-born director, producer and screenwriter who has worked on films and commercials. He is mostly popular for the Russian film Night Watch and its sequel Day Watch , and the American film Wanted .-Early life:Bekmambetov was born on June 25, 1961 in the...

. The film is a compelling depiction of war in Afghanistan

Soviet war in Afghanistan

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...

, based on actual events: the uprising of Soviet captives

Badaber Uprising

Badaber Uprising was an armed uprising by Soviet Union and Republic of Afghanistan captives held at the Badaber fortress-jail in Pakistan on April 26 and 27, 1985, against much larger units of Pakistan's regular army accompanied by Afghan mujahideen. The attempt of the captives to liberate...

 taken place in Badaber

Badaber

Badaber is a village in Peshawar District, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is situated on Kohat road, and some 10 kilometers away from the main Peshawar city. It is the location of the Badaber refugee camp and jail, established in February 1980, which was the site of the famous Badaber Uprising,...

, 24 km from the Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. A later version of the film, Escape from Afghanistan, was released by Corman with an English language soundtrack as a direct-to-video

Direct-to-video

Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

 production in 2002.

Plot summary

An American reporter and doctor (British and French in the original version) comes to a military base in Pakistan to document the P.O.W. conditions. While being there, the Soviet prisoners rise up and take over the base.