TRF Trials ENPRO

Genre: Documentary
Format: PAL / SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-Avi
Runtime: 25:37 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN, DE
Trailers: 1:47 (Music), 4:02 (EN)

Topic: After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, with the pretence of the famine, the Soviet regime imposed the requisition of all ecclesiastic goods and started to ransack the churches. The first wave of repression hit the priests that resisted to profanation and violence: the “demonstrative” trial against both Catholics and Orthodox priests is the theme of this documentary.

Plot: "... and there is no new thing under the sun"... this phrase from the book of Ecclesiastes constitute the epigraph to this film which introduces the spectator to the reality of the "Show Trials" held by the Soviet regime against the Catholic and Orthodox Church in the early 20th century. Besides the physical destruction of Churches and Church property the Bosheviks tried to justify their position in front of the Western allies with a kind of farce justice, putting priests and religious people under trial. The film touches themes such as the famine after the civil war, the official positions of the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and the Lenin government in front of the social problems at that time, the requisition of church values, the execution of clergy, and the actual trials against Archbishop Tseplyak, Metropolitan Veniamin, and Prelate Budkevich. Hegumen Innokenty Pavlov, a Russian Historian, comments on the facts throughout the film. Short biographical notes about the three main victims round up the picture. Events such as the show trials fostered strongly the atheist mindset of the Soviet society until present days.

Artistic Considerations: Striking imagery of historic origin supports the disturbing story about the Soviet show trials. These historic shootings are combined with modern recordings of the places that saw all these atrocities. Orthodox and Catholic sacred music complete the picture the author wanted to draw from this black period of the Soviet era.