With aftertalk with director Jessica Gorter
Historian Joeri Dmitriev discovered a mass grave with thousands of bodies of those who got executed during Stalins ‘Great Purge’ of 1937. He found their names and organized memorials for the relatives. But in Poetins Russia there is no place for this kind of stories. He got arrested on a fabricated charge and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour.
Jessica Gorter followed the case for years, which resulted in this staggering portrait of Dmitriev, and nowadays Russia. She made multiple prize winning documentaries about Russia, like 900 Days (2011) about the siege of Leningrad or De Rode Ziel (2017) about the return of stalinism. She will be interviewed by journalist and author Hester de Boer.
Can’t make it? You can also see The Dimitriev Affair with English subtitles on Sunday the 2nd of July. Tickets here.
Staggering portrait of the Russian historian and activist
In her sober, impressive documentary The Dmitriev Affair Gorter shows how Poetins repression grows