High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Afghan Breakdown (Russian: Афганский излом, translit. Afganskiy Izlom) is a 1990 war drama film about the Soviet war in Afghanistan directed by Vladimir Bortko and co-produced by Italy and the Soviet Union (Lenfilm). Michele Placido, an Italian TV star popular in the USSR, plays the main protagonist, Major Bandura, a commander of a unit of Soviet paratroopers, co-starring with several popular Soviet actors.