The war film genre has produced a long line of movies that deserve their place among any list of the best films of all time. From Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957 all the way through to All Quiet on the Western Front in 2022, there have been some truly astonishing feats of creative and cinematic success.

Many of them have left audiences in tears at the barbarity, horror and sheer tragedy of the ways human beings have behaved towards each other since the dawn of our history. But most of these films, especially those produced in the Western world, tend to cover three major conflicts: World War One, World War Two and the Vietnam War. Vietnam was the subject of several films in the 1970s and 1980s, among them Apocalypse Now, Deer Hunter and this one which has been called an "all-time great".

More recent films have also covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the standout films covering those conflicts are Hurt Locker, American Sniper and Zero Dark Thirty.

However, as well as Vietnam, there was another war in the 1970s which has shaped the decades since and still has a lasting legacy on world security. The Afghan-Soviet War began in 1979 when the USSR invaded Afghanistan.

In parallels with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, they had hoped for a swift and all-conquering invasion. Instead, they were met with 10 years of "grinding insurgency" before Moscow finally withdrew at the end of the next decade at a cost of billions of dollars and, more importantly, millions of lives. Afghan soldiers were backed with equipment from the western world, especially the United States.

"In their wake, the Soviets left a shattered country," reports the US government's Office of the Historian website. "In which the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group, seized control, later providing Osama bin Laden with a training base from which to launch terrorist operations worldwide."

But while the likes of Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List and Full Metal Jacket are known and lauded all over the world, there is one Hollywood film set in the Soviet-Afghan War that received almost no attention and is almost largely forgotten. The Beast of War was released in 1988 and tells the story of a Soviet tank crew led by a tyrranical officer who get lost in the Afghan wilderness, separated from their patrol and with Afghan fighters on their tails.

The commanding officer, Daskai, is played by George Dzundra, who has a long list of credits in film and TV to his name, including 22 episodes of Law and Order and the iconic film, Basic Instinct. It also stars Jason Patric (The Lost Boys, Wayward Pines), Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects) and Steven Bauer (Scarface, Breaking Bad).

Filmed in Israel, the movie's comparative lack of reputation means there are not a huge amount of reviews to be found online, even today. One reviewer, David Nusair, writing on the Reel Film Reviews website, said: "Kevin Reynolds has got to be one of the most thoroughly underappreciate directors working today. In 1988, he made a film called The Beast, which barely received a theatrical release, a surprisingly effective look at how men behave during times of war.

"Watching a movie like The Beast in this post-September 11 world is an unusual experience. Instead of asking us to hate the Afghani rebels, the movie instead requires us to sympathize with them."

He adds: "Among the actors, Dzundza is easily the standout here. With his chiseled features and muscular frame (which is surprising in and of itself given that Dzundza can no longer be consider svelte on any planet), he takes this character and makes him a terrifying figure."

Writing more recently, another viewer, David Palmer, says: "There are many worse war movies that are better known. This is a very good film by any standards. After a scene near the beginning which is unforgettable (literally — I hadn't seen the film in 30 years but I still remembered that scene, you'll know which one I mean when you see it for yourself)... you've got five men in a tank being hunted by ten men and six women out in the middle of nowhere. The film is exciting, thoughtful, scary, beautiful, different, and even a bit quirky."

The Beast of War (sometimes shortened to simply The Beast) is available for streaming — with a fee of £3.49 — on platforms such as Prime, Apple TV, YouTube and Google Play.