CULTURE: FILM FESTIVAL FEATURES OFTEN-UNTOLD STORIES
By Claire Bigg
Radio Free Europe. Czech Rep.
Feb 27 2007
PRAGUE, February 27, 2007 (RFE/RL) — The ninth annual One World
documentary film festival opens on February 28 in the Czech capital.
>>From India to Belarus, from Kyrgyzstan to Brazil, the annual festival
offers a chance to catch little-seen documentaries on political and
social issues across the world.
One such film, "Three Comrades," tells the story of three young
men whose lives, like tens of thousands of others in Chechnya, were
shattered by the war waged by Moscow on Chechen separatists.
The film shows footage of Grozny in the early 1990s. Three friends —
Ruslan, Ramzan, and Islam — are seen driving through the streets of
the Chechen capital, listening to loud rock music on their car radio.
In voice-over, Islam Bashirov, speaking in the present, remembers that
time of his youth. "Fifteen years ago, we never would’ve believed
that this would be our story," he says in Russian. "Ruslan, Ramzan,
me. Together we were one."
"Some girls said that after a while I’d get used to it… I got used
to it all right, to alcohol, to this."
— Tatyana, Russian trafficking victim A few months after that carefree
ride through Grozny, the first Chechen war breaks out.
Ruslan is arrested and executed by Russian soldiers. Then Ramzan is
killed in an air strike on the city.
Only one, Bashirov, flees Chechnya and survives.
Mankind’s "Big Challenges"
The weeklong One World Festival, held annually in the Czech capital
since 1999, brings together little-seen documentaries like "Three
Comrades" that examine political and social issues across the world.
"The aim of the festival is to bring a more complex picture,
understanding, of what’s happening on the international arena, of
the main issues of our times, the political and social issues, the
big challenges of mankind," says Igor Blazevic, the festival director.
"We are trying to get people to re-think what they see on the news
every day or to see those things they do not see on the news. We want
to make them become active citizens."
One World, which runs in Prague cinemas from February 28 to March 8,
will show 123 films from 34 countries.
While the festival hopes to attract a broad audience, One World,
Blazevic says, targets mainly young people — "basically the new
generation, those who are looking for their values, for their places
in a globalized world, for private or generational answers to what
role they are playing in the world today."
The festival explores a series of armed conflicts, both current and
past, and the legacies they have left.
One of the documentary films, "A Story of People in War and Peace,"
tells the story of Vardan Hovhannisyan. The camera follows this
Armenian journalist as he tries to come to terms with his four years
fighting against Azerbaijani troops over the disputed enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh, in the early 1990s.
"The war changed my life. It changed all our lives in Armenia,"
Hovhannisyan says to the camera. "Struggle, suffering, pain. I’ve
enjoyed 12 years of peace. I’m married with two beautiful children.
Life is so wonderful, and I don’t want to look back. But once,
my young son came up to me. He asked me: ‘Daddy, have you been a
soldier?’ And I don’t know what to say."
Global Issues, Local Stories
One World puts a human face on a wide range of hot-button topics, from
the spread of HIV, to ethnic tensions in Myanmar, ongoing violence
between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, the life of
Chornobyl victims, child rape in South Africa, or the treatment of
prisoners at the U.S. Guantanamo naval base.
Trafficking of women is also high on the festival’s agenda this year.
In "Fallen Angel," a Russian girl, Tatyana, recalls how she was forced
into prostitution in the Netherlands after her boyfriend sold her to
a pimp.
"Some girls said that after a while I’d get used to it. ‘A week or
so, and you’ll get used to all that,’" Tatyana says. "I got used to
it all right, to alcohol, to this. I wish I could turn back time and
that I’d never come to the Netherlands."
After some time, Tatyana found the strength to stand up to the abuse
and sought help. But instead of finding salvation, she became entangled
in a legal process that left her with vulnerable to a criminal gang
with no protection from the Dutch authorities.
Above all others, the main topic this year is political freedom. A
number of films are being presented under a special section called
"Democracy Report."
Festival director Blazevic says the films on this topic are not
limited to countries ruled by authoritarian regimes.
"We have films from countries like Azerbaijan, Belarus, Afghanistan,
where people are still striving to achieve democracy," he says. "But
we also have films questioning the quality of democracy in countries
like the United States, the Czech Republic, and Poland."