Russians celebrate World War victory in film

Chippa Legodimo | Tuesday May 5, 2015 12:16

It was the day Nazi Germany officially conceded defeat to the then Soviet Union by signing surrender documents in Berlin just moments after midnight.  The Russians celebrate it as Victory Day annually.

While that was a rough time for mankind, which resulted in massive destruction and loss of life, May 9 is an important part of the Russian heritage.  On this day the country takes time to remember the evils of the bloody war and its impact on generations to come. The Russians also look back with pride for ‘liberating’ the world from Hitler’s Nazism.

The embassy of the Russian Federation in Botswana has organised a film festival to celebrate ‘Victory in the Second World War’.

The events started Monday evening with the screening of the Unknown War: The battle for Moscow by Roman Karmen at the National Museum in Gaborone. The film was produced in 1978 in association with Rod McKuen, Bruce Fogel and Kalman Rostovsky. Today Leonid Bykov will treat guests to Only Old Men Are Going To Battle. Considered one of the best Russian films, it focuses on the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The film demonstrates how young men, fresh from flying schools with accelerated training, were only brought in as reinforcements, while their ‘older brothers’ faced piping canons.

These young men were not allowed to go to battle for some time yet when the command came that only older men were going to war, it was the young brigades that rushed to their planes.

The film will be followed by another by Stanislav Rostovsky called The Dawns Here Are Quite on Wednesday and then Vladimir Rogovoy’s 1971 release, Officers.