Script File

«ZUGZWANG OF OBER LIEUTENANT BRUNO THEVS» literary script (130 pages)

The story about a young ober-lieutenant of the Bundeswehr of Germany, Bruno Thevs, who serves in the KSK special operations forces unit.
Bruno was one year old when his father, a Soviet soldier, was killed in Afghanistan in 1986.
In 1989 Bruno, along with relatives from the Volga Germans, was moved from the USSR to Germany for permanent residence.
Having grown up and become a professional soldier, despite the spell of his mother, Bruno appeals to the command with a request for rotation in the special anti—terrorist unit "TASK FORCE-47" TF-47 in the German ISAF forces in Afghanistan,
fighting the radical Taliban movement.
After rigorous testing and selection, Bruno arrives at the Mazar-I-Sharif military base in Afghanistan.
He is motivated, assertive, and brusque; everything about Bruno is subordinated to a single goal — fighting the rebels and avenging his father.
While solving anti-terrorist tasks in Afghanistan, Bruno involves his friend, Otto Grinberg, a reporter for a leading Western publication, whom Bruno released from Taliban captivity,
in one of the special operations, during which Otto pays for the cynicism of the TF-47 command with his life.
The death of a comrade shocks Bruno. Bruno will not be able to prevent the death of his beloved Afghan girlfriend Seeta Ahmadzai, who dies in an ISAF airstrike on the hospital of the MSF Doctors Without Borders humanitarian mission.
Participating in special operations against the Taliban, Bruno is in the midst of dramatic events, the epicenter of the mass casualties of the Afghan population.
A recent apologist for Western values, convinced of the rightness of the actions of the ISAF fighting international terrorism, Bruno will experience a psychological breakdown and a transformation of his worldview, blaming the victims on Afghan civilians — ISAF and his commanders.
Not wanting to remain a part of the brutal military machine anymore, Bruno resigns from the Bundeswehr and goes to his historical homeland in Russia. There, Bruno searches for his late Father's friends who survived the battles.
The events in Russia will fill Bruno's life with new meaning.

  • Iliyas Daudi
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Number of Pages:
    129
  • Country of Origin:
    Russian Federation
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
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    «Quarter-Finalist» Feature Screenplay (130 page)
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    New York, USA
    April 30, 2025
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Writer Biography - Iliyas Daudi

ILIYAS DAUDI, Russian writer, member of the «Union of Writers of Russia», screenwriter, film director, clipmaker, producer, soldier of the Afghan War (1979-1989), Hero of the Russian Federation.

IMDb nm 15078873 — https://m.imdb.com/name/nm15078873/

Military writer, short story writer, essayist, publicist — author of works about the Afghan War (1979-1989) and the history of Afghanistan.
— Author of essays and publications in periodicals of the Russian press, headings «history», «military policy»: the magazine «Army Collection», the newspaper «RED STAR» — the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, «Independent Newspaper», the newspapers «Moskovsky Komsomolets», «Kazan Reporter», etc.
— Author of the military historical novel-trilogy «In the Kunduz Circle» (2020) - about the fate of six Soviet intelligence soldiers in the Afghan war and after it — stories published in Russian literary and art magazines. Copies of the book «In the Kunduz Circle» were taken to the libraries of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Main Military and Political Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Central House of the Russian Army named after M.V. Frunze.
— Winner of the «11th All-Russian Literary competition of the Central House of the Russian Army named after M.V. Frunze of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation» in 2017 in the nomination «Prose and drama» for «Essay of a wounded soldier» from the collection «Notes of a military intelligence officer».

Bibliography

• «In the Kunduz Circle» military historical novel-trilogy
• «The Great Game in Afghanistan» monograph
• «We'll all be back!» novel
• «Not by the front corridor» military novel
• «The Zugzwang of Ober lieutenant Bruno Thevs» a military novel.

— In 2024, he graduated from the 2-year Higher Courses of directing and producing films and television of the S.A. Gerasimov's All-Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK). At the same time, he continued his studies at the VGIK, in the master's degree of the screenwriting and Film studies faculty. The author of the script, director and actor of the Short Films: «SELF-PORTRAIT», «THE BLIND»; Music Video «SULTONI QALBAM» HIMN OF LOVE (2024), «THE BETROTHED» (2024), «SULTAN OF MY HEART» (2024), «ETERNAL LOVE» (2024). «EVERY MUSIC HAVE J.S. BACH» (2024).

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Writer Statement

TIME SLICES

— The first, present, 2000s tells about the Ober lieutenant of the special operations forces of the KSK Bundeswehr — Bruno Thevs, the son of a Soviet soldier who died in Afghanistan.
— The second, a flashback to the recent past — an episode of the history of friends in the Afghan war and Modern Russia.
— The third, a flashback to the distant past — the Emirate of Afghanistan 1917-1930, the period of the struggle against Basmatism in the Afghan-Soviet border area.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

— The story is based on real events in Afghanistan, widely covered in the Western media, received a strong resonance in the world.
— The facts of the excessive use of military force by ISAF with the mass death of civilians took place in reality:
— during an air strike on the village of Umar-heil in the province of Kunduz — on civilians who had accumulated near fuel trucks, about 100 people were killed.
— during an air strike on the village of Daftani in Kunduz province — with the mass death of Hafiz children reciting the Koran from 8 to 14 years old on the day of graduation from the madrasah, about 100 children were killed.
— during an air strike on the MSF hospital of the international humanitarian mission «Doctors without Borders» in the city of Kunduz — a large number of civilians, European and Afghan medical workers who were in the buildings, killed more than 100 people.
— The prototype of Der Spiegel correspondent Otto Greenberg, who conducted a journalistic investigation of the inhuman actions of the ISAF, was the American New York Times journalist Stephen Farrell, kidnapped by the Taliban.