TRW Feast Days ENPRO

Genre: Thematic Short Film
Format: PAL/SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-AVI
Runtime: 4:05 min
Languages: RU (orig.), EN
Series: "Eye Witnesses"

Topic: In the Soviet Union, state holidays were taken very seriously. The anniversary of the Great Socialist October Revolution on November 7 and the Day of International Workers’ Solidarity, May 1, were celebrated by the entire country. There were also secret holidays – Easter, Christmas. They were celebrated more by women; the older, the less they hid it.

Plot: In this short film the witnesses talk about Orthodox Easter mixed with profane feastdays, youth manifestations, parades and demonstrations of Soviet power, personal experiences with the Soviet leaders, arrests and intrusions in occasion of state holydays, Easter in the camp, and the celebration of Stalin's death by the Ukrainians.

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
• Human Relations
• Life in the Camps
• Persecuted Church
• Soviet Childhood
• Soviet Life
• The Man and the System
• Unjust Justice