The Eighth New York Festival introduced the best documentaries from Russia

NEW YORK. At the festival of Russian documentary films, Roman Super’s film about a girl with a rare genetic disease won.

The political apathy of RusDocFilmFest-3W did not become a panacea for its possible abolition this year in connection with the events that provoked a crisis in relations between Russia and the whole world. The efforts of the organizers were not in vain and allowed the festival to take place, introducing the best documentaries filmed recently by filmmakers from Russia, the USA, Lithuania, Belarus. The global, global in them is relegated to a secondary plan, giving way to a quiet, sincere and piercing conversation with the audience about mercy, memory, perseverance and love. In a situation of sharp confrontation, the value of such a dialogue increases many times.

The Grand Prix received the film “At Your Fingertips” by Roman Super about courage and overcoming an incurable disease. The main character has been diagnosed with “Butterfly Syndrome” or bullous epidermolysis. It is manifested by increased sensitivity of the skin, the inability to transfer ordinary touch without injury. The screen appears not crushed by the disease, but a very charming, positive and courageous person whose life is not only daily trials, but also work, communication, needlework, travel.

Among the program’s strongest films are Voices by Ekaterina Gordeeva. One of the first attempts to find out the true truth about the Leningrad blockade, which claimed hundreds of thousands of human lives and left behind many painful questions.. Why, in a city crazy with hunger, the ration of officials from Smolny did not include bread from cake, food pulp and wallpaper dust, not cutlets of papier-mâché and jelly from wood glue, but chocolate, caviar and meat? Why, decades later, the archives of those terrible times are not open? The filmmakers spared the psyche of the audience, not raising the topic of cannibalism in a city going crazy with hunger, but there are plenty of shocking facts in it. About the destruction of the museum of the blockade with invaluable documents, about the actual ban on the story of the real life of the city in that terrible period.

Among the prizes awarded are a picture of Ivan Tverdovsky about the disputed Northern Territories, a tape by Michael Beckelheimer about why Pushkin’s name remains symbolic for so many people.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru