My Best Dox

On the island of Kronstadt neat St. Petersburg, there is a military academy attended by cadets age 10 to 14. The academy teaches them to become obedient soldiers, loyal to their country and the Orthodox faith. In Grozny, the completely destroyed Chechen capital, the devoted humanitarian Hadijat Gatayeva is trying to help a mother of three: the women fell ill working in an oil plant and does not know what to do. A refugee camp in Ingushetia, a country bordering Chechnya, gave shelter to all those who survived the Russian invasion, however, Ingushetia just abolished their asylum because Russia is longer in war with Chechnya. In this triptych Finnish documentarian Pirjo Honkasalo subtly analyses the closed circuit of violence. The children educated to be soldiers will later commit crimes stimulated by those in power. In the final shots of her film, the director warns that the Chechen clash would never have happened had it not been a precious oil road which Russia does not want to give up.

Nenad Polimac