- Covers six weeks of the lives of Sasha Politkovsky, a prominent TV journalist, and his family. Chronicles the events of 1990 as glasnost and perestroika lift the lid of totalitarianism in the Soviet Union.
- It was the beginning of spring in 1990. And it was the dawning of a new era, a time of burgeoning change which could not be stopped in a country freshly awoken by perestroika. Although Communist leadership was still clinging to its stranglehold on the country's fate, the people wanted otherwise. The people wanted to revoke the sixth section of the Constitution, which consolidated the Communist Party's monopoly on power. At the heart of the film is a young family of journalists -Sasha Politkovsky, his wife Anna, their children, and even their dog. Sasha was a prominent TV journalist who was the head anchor on "The View" (the most topical and least censored TV show of the time). Anna was destined to become a journalist of truly international fame, proving her courage, and her journalistic integrity, during her coverage of the Chechnyan conflict. Journalism is a profession which is most keenly involved in the political life of a nation. By 1990, perestroika had begun to change the Soviet Union, letting people get a taste of freedom, like a gulp of fresh air. But it was no longer enough for most people to have this small measure of Gorbachev's reforms. People wanted to live in a country free from communism. The film is a unique glimpse into a time which is already fading from people's memories, a time of amazing change and urgency as Russia took its first steps after the fall of a 75-year old totalitarian regime. Russian with English narration. 46 minutes, 1991—Anonymous
- The Russian Story profiles Anatoly Rybakov, a best-selling Russian novelist. His personal life follows Russia in the XXth century, a country destroyed in Stalinist purges and in the battlefields of World War II. With Perestroika the calamities seem to have ended. Or have they? The film is structured around three major themes: Stalinist purges and the Second World War, the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union, and the destiny and future of Russia. In The Children of the Arbat, first published in 1987 at the outset of Perestroika, Rybakov examines the enormous human cost the Soviet Union paid in the XXth century. The book became a symbol for freedom and openness and made possible a public debate about Stalinist crimes. Heavy Sand talks about the horrors of the Holocaust, perpetrated by the Nazis in the Soviet Union. It opened a public debate about the Jewish question in a thoroughly anti-Semitic Soviet State. It broke the taboo for the first time mentioning the historic figure of 6 million Jews, who perished in the Holocaust. In The Memoirs Rybakov draws conclusions from his life in the Soviet Union making the sad point that human life has lost its value in today's Russia. Yet, after decades of persecution and stagnation, life goes on. Will Russia resurrect itself from the ashes of the Stalinist state? Will the new generation build a new life? Rybakov poses these questions as a great writer who cares for his country and his people. Russian with English Subtitles. 52 minutes, 2006—Anonymous
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