RUSSIAN LESSONS

Directors: Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov
Executive Producer Giorgi Arveladze
Producer Torstein Grud
2009

The film starts as a journey by the two directors-protagonists, Olga and Andrei, on two sides of the frontline during the last year's Russian-Georgian war. A non-conventional deeply personal feature documentary firmly establishes emotional contact with the audiences by depicting human drama, before coming up with political conclusions.

They emerge naturally and forcefully as overwhelming evidence of Russian imperialist plot shows through the superficial political altercating and even mistakes and naivety of the Georgians. Importantly the film puts the recent war in the context of the post-Soviet history which has managed to keep its darkest secrets away from international public’s attention despite dozens of relevant UN resolutions.

At the same time as Milosevic was earning the reputation of the biggest evil of the post-communist world, Russia was sponsoring and conducting the campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing against the Georgian population of integral parts of Georgia, a war whose cruelty and statistics exceeded that of former Yugoslavia.