They stood together while their country fell apart...

Russian army recruits complete training and take their posting in late 1980s Afghanistan, where the insurgents are slowly gaining the upper hand.
9th Company keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8/E11/E12 of the E0–E14 reality ladder.
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.