The film stars some of Russia's most famous actors, Vladimir Mashkov, Andrei Panin and Alexander Baluyev.

The men were held prisoners for more than one year by the Taliban which controlled about half of Afghanistan at the time during the Afghan Civil War.

The captain was forced to teach Taliban fighters to fly the plane, and the rest of the hostages were allowed to visit their aircraft for maintenance.

[4] Despite interception efforts by Taliban base guards, which caused the aircraft to start the takeoff having only half of the runway, they were able to take off.

Despite several technical difficulties immediately after takeoff, they finally gained a safe cruising altitude and speed.