Documentary Films in Competition 2002 / Dezertir / Russia 2002
The statement of a soldier who has deserted from the Chechen War and is hiding out among snow-capped peaks. He explains the motivation for his actions through memories and reflections, the import of which is clarified by news footage of the terrifying and bizarre realities of this war. Both the local population and Russian soldiers have been massacred, and the irrationality of war propagates only chaos, destruction and devastation.
The closing titles inform the viewer that the protagonist hopes he will be understood and that he will be pardoned. He asks the filmmakers not to say where he lives because he still believes he can return home. We see anguished eyes in an intelligent face, and hear his testimony: he speaks of the reasons why he became a soldier fighting in Chechnya and why he eventually decided to flee. He now survives in snow-covered mountains among trees and ruins. The monologue, in which memories alternate with reflections, is interlarded with actual footage of all that makes up our notions of Chechnya: life in tent camps, training and actions undertaken by special units, firing blindly from dawn, searching Chechen houses – all accompanied by the cries of soldiers and local women, the roar of transporters, and helicopters in continuous flybys. Colour shots follow black-and-white ones, dramatic scenes intermingle with calm. Taken all together (including shots of war-ravaged Grozny and annihilated people – locals as well as Russian soldiers) the film creates a vision of a ghastly, insane world which defies description.
30 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Sergei Bosenko
/ Screenplay Irina Semaško / Irina Semashko, Sergej Bosenko / Sergei Bosenko
/ Dir. of Photography K. Miromanov / K. Miromanov, I. Uralskaja / I. Uralskaya, P. Gerasimenkov / P. Gerasimenkov, K. Durnov / K. Durnov, A. Kapranov / A. Kapranov
/ Editor Natalija Tapkova / Nataliya Tapkova
/ Producer Natalija Želtuchina / Nataliya Zheltukhina
/ Production Risk Film and Video Studio
Sergei Bosenko (b. 1967, Odessa) served in the army (1987-89) and then graduated from Novosibirsk Agricultural Academy as a zoologist (1991) and then from Moscow’s VGIK film school, (1998). Filmography: The Last Glance (1993), Alternative Soldier (1994), Weisenborn in Moscow (1995), Semester Work (1996), Well, Good Luck, Kostya, Good Luck (1998), Chechen Gambit (2001), made in cooperation with Irina Semashko, who also worked with Bosenko on Deserter (2002).
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