The Dmitriev Affair (Jessica Gorter)
Russia & the Former Soviet Union
•
1h 35m
Directed by Jessica Gorter • Documentary • 2024 • 96 minutes
Yuri Dmitriev exhumes what the Russian rulers would rather forget. After years of searching the pine forests of Karelia in northwestern Russia, he discovers a mass grave containing thousands of people who were secretly executed during Stalin’s “Great Terror” of 1937.
It is not the Russian government but Yuri Dmitriev who tracks down their identities in the archives and organizes commemorations for their next of kin. Thanks to his efforts, they finally find out what happened to their lost relatives. Having himself been left at a maternity clinic as a baby, he is a man on a mission: ‘Every human being has the right to know where they came from and where their family lies buried.’
While abroad there is increasing recognition for this “archaeologist of terror”, in Russia Dmitriev is discredited as someone collaborating with the West. Then he is arrested, on basis of a fabricated charge. Tragically accurate Dmitriev predicts his own future and that of his country.
Up Next in Russia & the Former Soviet Union
-
Inside Russia
Directed by Paul Mitchell, Anastasiya Popova • Documentary • 2023 • 54 minutes
Despite the huge risks, two Russian filmmakers have been filming the impact of the invasion of Ukraine in their country.
The filmmakers get rare access to the brave Russians who are willing to speak out against their...
-
Kin-dza-dza!
Directed by Georgiy Daneliya • Drama • With Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze • 1986 • 133 minutes
Imagine Andrei Tarkovsky circa Solaris directing Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and you'll come close to the existential weirdness of this loopy Soviet-era sci-fi comedy. Two...
-
The Savage Hunt Of King Stakh
Directed by Valeri Rubinchik • Drama • With Elena Dimitrova, Boris Plotnikov • 1980 • 127 minutes
Part folk horror, part supernatural mystery, the long-unseen THE SAVAGE HUNT OF KING STAKH is a melancholy, chilling mixture of Terry Gilliam, Italian Gothic Horror, 1960s Hammer Films and THE WICKE...
