TRW Life in the Camps ENPRO

Genre: Thematic Short Film
Format: PAL/SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-AVI
Runtime: 4:13 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN
Series: "Eye Witnesses"

Topic: Until the middle of the 1950s, there existed thousands of labor camps in the Soviet system known as the Gulag. Those who were imprisoned worked for free, building canals, roads and industrial and other projects in the Far North, the Far East and other regions. The mortality rate from hunger, illness and the backbreaking labor was extremely high.

Plot: The witnesses talk about their experiences in the camps, how the cells were made, the transports in which they were brought to the camps, the hardships of life there, the control systems, the baracks, the hygenic problems, the food, the backbraking work on the railroad, the mixing of political convicts with common criminals, and the great number of corpses that were buried every day.

The Series: Memories, if not captured on film, become more and more blurred over the years. That's why we took advantage of the occasion to interview those who really experienced the horrors of the Soviet regime either on their own skin or through experiences made by their relatives. About 50 hours of material of these "Children of the Gulag" are available in our archive for further development, and just a very small part is presented in this series. We deliberately abstained from any comment on what is said by the witnesses in order to let the spectator decide. These short films may be useful as support material in talk-shows or educational programs. Other themes may be developed in future.

Other short films of the series:

• A Glimpse of Happiness
• Born in Prison
• Citizens and Spies
• Faith in the Camp
• Feast Days
• Human Relations
• Persecuted Church
• Soviet Childhood
• Soviet Life
• The Man and the System
• Unjust Justice