TRF Return ENPRO

Genre: Documentary
Format: PAL / SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-Avi
Runtime: 26:31 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN, FR, DE
Trailers: 1:32 (EN), 1:55 (Music), 4:32 (EN)

Topic: “Return” is the story of three children of families arrived in U.S.S.R. after the Spanish civil War, integrated into the Spanish community and in the Russian life at the same time. After the Perestroika, all of them discover anew their first motherland and the faith left behind in childhood.

Plot: The film begins with some brief scenes from the Spanish Community in Moscow today. Through Virtudes, one of our protagonists we learn about the Spanish war in 1936 under the reign of Franco and of the communist movement there. She tells us how the parents took the decision to send the children into Russia to save them from the horrors of war and how they came to Russia with all the difficulties and dangers envolved. Carmen and Lyuba tell us about their arrival and youth in Russia. Many personal experiences and anecdotes enrich the story. The children then arrived in the Volga Region from where the Russians had moved the previous settled Germans to Siberia. Many of the Spaniards in Russia participated voluntarily in the Russian military during World War II. Until the end of the war the children were convinced that soon they would go back home to Spain. But the political situation forced them to remain there until the recent times of Peristroika. Slowly they rediscover their Spanish roots and with it their Catholic faith, left behind long ago and not cared for throughout many years under the Soviet atheist regime. Carmen discovered that she was not even baptized, though she thought she was, and our team had occasion to accompany her on her way towards her initiation into the Catholic community of Moscow in 2001.

Artistic Considerations: The strongly personal aspect of this movie allows the spectator to learn about a mostly forgotten reality. The stories are accompanied by precious and rare historic material of the respective situations and help further to identify with the protagonists. Original spanish music is used in order to depict the controversies of the two realities, the Spanish Catholic culture and the Soviet atheist mentality.