Film on Dubrovka terror act included into programme of the Venice Film Festival

The feature film "Conference" by the Russian film director, Ivan Tverdovsky, telling about the consequences of the terror act in the Theatrical Centre on Dubrovka in 2002 has been included into the programme of the Venice Film Festival.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the terror act, also simply referred to as the "Nord-Ost", took place in Moscow, on October 23-26, 2002. A group of armed militants led by Movsar Baraev took 916 hostages. In exchange for their lives, the terrorists demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities in Chechnya and the withdrawal of federal troops from the republic. The demands of the militants were not satisfied. After almost three days, law enforcers carried out the rescue operation, during which, according to the official information, 130 hostages, including 10 children, were killed, and more than 700 other hostages were injured.

The "Conference" is one of the two Russian films included into the independent contest programme "Giornate degli Autori" (Authors' Days) of the Venice Festival. The film tells about the consequences of the events related to the tragic hostage-taking at the Dubrovka Centre during the show of musical "Nord-Ost" in 2002. The main character, performed by Natalia Pavlenkova, escapes during the terror act, but leaves her husband and two children in the hall with hostages. Eighteen years later, she returns from the monastery to wash away her sin and apologize for the main mistake of her life, the film's producer, Katerina Mikhailova, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her story, the decision to make the film was made immediately after reviewing the script in early 2019. She has noted that she was interested in the topics of sacrifice and loss of loved ones, which are international, since many people in different countries have already faced similar problems.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 25, 2020 at 11:02 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.