The incredible story of a soldier of Tatar origin who was captured by the Nazis in World War II. Now, through his diaries and various personal and public archives and records, his daughter Sana is trying to retrace the trail of her silent father.
While accompanying Sana on her quest, director Aliona van der Horst (Love is potatoes) also digs out film archives to find traces of the millions of Soviet soldiers who were in the firing line of warring dictators; those who were there but were conveniently omitted from the narrative of global war.
Using mixed techniques such as double-pass, zooming and colouring to re-appropriate the archive material, the filmmaker seeks the soul of the image – the small, subtle remnants of a vast but casually erased human tragedy. Careful but determined, this history unfolds in a film that breaks 60 years of silence.
More Forum on European Culture
Housewitz
Housewitz is a tragicomic film about how war affects a family life, and is Hoogendijk’s most personal film to date.
CANCELLED Eline Arbo & Natalie Haynes on European Tragedy
Can we draw moral lessons from ancient European myths? And how do we deal with their predominantly male perspective?
A Culture of Genocide
European history is steeped in violence, war and genocide. How have these events shaped the Europe of today?
