New East Symposium
Disbelief
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Russia and US, Dreamscanner 2004 |
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Disbelief, a documentary film about the bombing of a Moscow apartment building on the night of 8-9 September 1999 takes the viewer on an intense and emotional journey in ten parts. Nekrasov and his crew follow Tania, her young son Sasha, and her lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin to Denver, Milwaukee, Washington, London, Mosc As Disbelief unfolds, Nekrasov draws us gradually, and often blatantly, to his ultimate conclusion—that the Russian government sanctioned the bombing of the building and actually planned a similar "scare" attack in the city of Riazan. Every viewpoint in the film Tania asks her lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin: "Are you not afraid? By persisting in your investigations you are putting your own life on the line?" "I have a cause and I believe it is just," answers Trepashkin. "Even my own former colleagues from the FSB will testify that I've never deceived or betrayed anyone. So I am at peace with myself." These former colleagues later arrested Trepashkin in October of 2002 on the charge of illegal firearms possession for a gun that Trepashkin claims the FSB planted in his car. He was found guilty in the Moscow District Military court for illegal ammunition possession and for disclosing classified information without elements of treason, and was subsequently sentenced to four years in a non-prison penal settlement. When Trepashkin was arrested, Nekrasov made another documentary compiled from interviews the two did together; the master copy of this film was stolen from Nekrasov's briefcase.
Disbelief not only details the effects of terrorism across the nation, but tells the story of Tania's personal quest to define her relationship to her native country. For her there are two Russias: the Russia before 8 September 1999 that exists only in her heart, and the present-day Russia that may have had a role in the death of her mother. She is in a state of disbelief as she claims: "I would never believe people could do such a thing." When she visits the Dakhkilgovs, a Chechen couple accused of being involved in the bombing, she learns how deep the racism cuts through her country. It seems that the only protagonist not subsumed with horror and disbelief about the events and the current state of the nation is Sasha. The film's shocking images and strong emotions are juxtaposed with his natural, childish folly. Nevertheless, even with his American passport, Sasha is just as much a part of the events of 19 Gyrianova Ul. despite his unawareness of their consequences. |
ow, and the Urals, in their investigation. The film begins innocently, with Sasha picking his nose. We are told simply that he and Tania "now live in America," and we learn that she had started a new life long before the horrific bombing that killed her mother, her sister Elena's boyfriend, and nearly 100 others. Vladimir Putin, at the time Prime Minister under President Boris El'tsin, released an official statement attributing the bombing to Chechen terrorists. Four days after that attack on 19 Gyryanova Ul., an apartment building on Kashirskoe Shosse was bombed, and on 16 September a truck bomb destroyed the facade of an apartment building in Volgodonsk. In September 1999 alone, almost 300 people were killed in apartment bombings in Russia.
supports this theory except for one woman, the "White Russian," who blames Chechnya for the attack, and states: "peace in the Caucuses has always been maintained by Russian bayonets." In one of the most emotional scenes of the documentary, a demolition crew destroys the remainder of the already bombed apartment building as Tania and her sister discuss their newly-changed lives. The hasty removal of all evidence by the secret service gives further credence to the suspicious activity of the government.
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Andrei Nekrasov |
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Filmography 1989 - Raising the Curtain, TV documentary |
