TRF Butovo ENPRO

Genre: Docu-Fiction
Format: PAL / SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-Avi
Runtime: 25:52 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN
Trailers: 1:48 (EN), 1:47 (Music), 4:02 (EN)

Topic: In the “special zone” or “shooting range” called Butovo, in the south of Moscow, 21.000 people were executed from 1937 on, about a thousand of them were priests, more than 200 were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as martyrs. The heroic story of Vladimir Ambartsumov, a priest executed there and venerated as a saint martyr, has a special place in the film.

Plot: In the last century thousands of people were killed because they were uncomfortable for the Soviet regime. One of these places where executions took place on a regular basis is the "Butovo shooting range" in the outskirts of Moscow. Today a memorial place is situated there in order to remember the victims of these atrocities. The film evolves around the biography of Fr. Vladimir Ambartsumov, an Orhtodox priest who died there. His grandson Kirill, himself an Orthodox priest now, was one of the driving forces of the discovery of the infamous place and was involved in the excavations which brought to light horrendous realities. In his exclusive interview Kirill tells us about his research in the Lubianka Archives, how he found out about the place and about the fact that his grandfather was executed there. Through the interviews with the daughter of Fr. Vladimir and Gleb Udintsev, a spiritual son of his, shed further light on the character and the drammatic end of the Orthodox martyr. Short quotations of "The Gulag Archipelago" from Alexander Solzhenitsyn amplify the dramatic stories of the witnesses. Interviews with Lidia Golovka, the chief editor of the book "Butovo Range" and her colleague Ksenia Lyubimova, as also with Aleksandr, one of the last guards of the area, provide us with incredible facts about the persecution and the shooting range. In the last years Fr. Kirill lead the works for the erection of a memorial Church in the place where so many people had been killed and today he is the head priest of the Butovo Memorial. Father Vladimir was proclaimed a martyr by the Orthodox Church together with 195 others. Short statements of several visitors of the memorial conclude the story and show us the need of learning from the past.

Artistic Considerations: The testimonies of the witnesses who participated in this project are the driving force in this film. The emotional pain they experience transpires to the spectator and lets him understand the horror and suffering of the Soviet persecution in this one example of an execution place. Location shootings of the Butovo area, historic photographs, black and white fiction scenes, and shootings of the original archive documents about Vladimir Ambartsumov contribute to the high level of veracity the film transmits. Tastfully chosen classic music help to focus on the character of remembrance the author of this film intended to give.