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Men for War

Under family and societal pressure to migrate, a young Nepali man chooses to join the Russian army.

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Dhiraj (19) trains in a camp for young men who are all competing for a spot in the British Gurkha regiment. Becoming a Gurkha promises to transform the lives of these new fighters and their families forever; but the famous regiment, takes less than a hundred new Nepali recruits every year. Dhiraj competes with thousands of young men just like him, whose only chance in life to get out of poverty is to become a Gurkha. But when Russia offers citizenships to foreigners willing to fight their war, hundreds of Nepali men jump at that chance. Dhiraj, under pressure from family to go abroad to make a living, has to make a decision: join his brother to work as an underpaid laborer in the middle-east vs. fight a foreign battle to migrate.