Vladimir Menshov said Fyodr Bondarchuk's The Ninth Company, telling the story of an army unit sent into the Central Asian country to fight mujahideen guerrillas, would compete for the 79th Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. It beat Pavel Lungin's The Island and twelve other newly-released Russian pictures in a narrow vote.
"I think the film's submission for the Oscar is only natural, given its record box-office takings," said Menshov, whose own feature Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears earned him an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film in 1980.
Bondarchuk, 38, is one of the first filmmakers to bring to the screen the Soviet Union's controversial military campaign in Afghanistan of the 1980s. Made with a budget of $9 million, it became an instant box-office hit at home, grossing $7.7 million in the first five days after its release in September 2005.
