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ONE WORLD 2012: Barzakh

Date: 16 May 2012 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM

Venue: BOZAR - Palais des Beaux-Arts (STUDIO), 23 Rue Ravenstein, 1000 Bruxelles

Film by Mantas Kvedaravicius / Finland, Lithuania / 2011 /60 min.

  • The number of free tickets to this screening is limited. If registration is full, please purchase a ticket at the BOZAR (Palais des Beaux-Arts, 23 Rue Ravenstein, 1000 Bruxelles) or at the BOZAR website.

 

This Finnish-Lithuanian film, produced by Aki Kaurismäki, documents the current situation in Chechnya. The war is long over but the kidnapping, torture and murder of “inconvenient” individuals continue on an almost daily basis. Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who spent three years shooting in Chechnya, focuses on the missing person case of Hamdan Mastaev. His family, who have been trying to locate him on their own, are at their wits’ end. The chilling recollections of another abductee, Alaudi Sadykov, along with shots of the spot where he was brutally tortured (and miraculously survived), expose viewers to the fate of most kidnapping victims. Despite the ostentatious renovation of Grozny’s boulevards, the fact that Chechnyan citizens are not safe is reflected in the fact that victims are often journalists, pointing to possible collusion between the kidnappers and authorities. The bleak atmosphere of this documentary is reflected in the title which, roughly translated, means helplessness.

Guests will include Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee against Torture, Nizhny Novgorod, and Aude Merlin, Chechnya researcher, Free University of Brussels.

 

Film trailer.

This screening is part of the One World in Brussels 2012 film festival.